The Black and Whites won the game after the 24-year-old hooker perfectly ducked the pass from dummy half to Aidan Sezer, giving the half-back the time and space to sneak over his drop-goal.
However, there isn’t any drama for Bourouh, who left Salford Red Devils to join Hull in the off-season. That’s it for the number nine, who was born in Huddersfield. He is humble, grounded, and solely concerned with doing his best for his new team.
He’s done exactly that so far. Putting himself about in the middle of the field, he’s stepped into some big shoes and has been a firm part of Hull’s two wins so far—missing the Wigan defeat to head knock protocols.
“It’s just my job,” he told Hull Live when asked about that pass. “I don’t think anyone will give me any applause for that.
“But it’s been really good (time at Hull so far). I’ve really enjoyed the move. It’s a great group of lads, and we’ve had two wins out of three, so it’s been a pretty good start.
“It’s one week at a time, and we’ll keep going. We lost to Wigan, but we bounced back pretty quickly.
It’s always difficult to win when you leave it so late, but it shows that we have some grittiness in the team to pull it off.”
On defense, the opposition has had the majority of the possession in Hull’s three Super League games thus far, and while resilient and gritty qualities have emerged from that, Bourouh wants to see the team attack with more even keel.
As the hooker, he touches the ball more than anyone, and he’s keen to put the combinations worked on in pre-season—namely with Aidan Sezer, Cade Cust, and John Asiata—into action.
Boruouh continued: “We’ve not shown much in attack yet, so I’m looking forward to putting a bit of that on show and scoring some good tries.
“Aidan has said to me, if I want to run, run. I know when he needs the ball. John massively helps with that. He makes it really easy.
“I’ve also played with Custy before at Salford, but Aidan’s leadership—he’s so structured on how he wants us to be, and it frees Custy up a lot so he can concentrate on his running game. It’s a good balance.”
He added: “It has been massively defence-orientated for us so far, but that’s a reflection on how we’ve played really. There are a few errors in there in areas where we don’t need them, but hopefully we can look after that ball more and bring in some attacking play.
We’ve hardly had any good ball yet; we’ve not attacked on their line and completed sets, so it’s really promising that we can still come out with the win with such little ball and limited opportunities.
“Our defence has been really strong so far. There are always areas that we can improve on, but especially when the opposition has been attacking our line, I feel like we’ve been connected and stayed together.”
That spirit has been there to see in Hull so far, even if they were humbled by Wigan on their last outing. Putting that right in their next home outing against Leigh Leopards this Thursday night is now their latest challenge, with the side determined to not only compete this year but also make a push to the top half of the table.
“There’s a lot of lads that are massively disappointed with the season they had last year, so they’ll be wanting to prove themselves,” Bourouh explained. “I feel like everyone who has come in is wanting to prove themselves as well.
“Carty wanted us to be tight at the beginning of preseason, and I think we are now. We are all pretty close. One of the main reasons is that we all want to respect and play for one another; we don’t want to disappoint our partners.
“We trained for around 12 weeks throughout the preseason; it was difficult and demanding. We seem prepared; we’re strong and fit enough, in my opinion.
A lot of the fans want to see a team who tries hard, but as a team, we want to achieve something bigger than that. We want to compete in every game and come away with something. The top six is something we’ve got to be aiming for. It’s something that every team aims for, but that’s it for us.
“I think it’s achievable; teams change week on week, so performances vary, but if we just control what we can control, we won’t be too far off.”
And on Hull’s Leyther challenge, Bourouh added: “They’re a strong team, and they’ve started the season off really well. They’ve made some good signings; they’re physical, and it’s going to be a big challenge, but all the lads will be up for it.”
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