Leon Pryce says Hull FC have a new challenge this year

The Black and Whites broke their trophy drought by beating Warrington in the Challenge Cup final last August, and were narrowly-beaten semi-finalists in Super League XXI.

Lee Radford's men started their 2017 season with a 12-8 win over Wakefield, and Pryce believes things will not get any easier for Hull as they deal with the expectation of building on last year's success.

"It's a new challenge for them this year because last year they were an unknown team who hadn't won anything since the 2005 Challenge Cup," said Pryce.

"But this year all the teams know that Hull are a top team, they are the Challenge Cup holders, so all the teams will be coming out fully prepared for them.

"It's another challenge but they've got a good enough squad to meet that challenge."

Hull host Catalans on Thursday, live on Sky Sports, with the Dragons looking to back up their opening-round win over Warrington in France.

"It will be a good game," said Pryce. "It's Hull FC's first home game and Catalans sometimes have problems travelling so I'm really looking forward to it."

Pryce left Hull to rejoin Bradford this year, with the Bulls registering their first victory of the season with a 35-28 success over Swinton on Sunday.

"It was nice to get the first win at the weekend, we took a bit of confidence from that," Pryce added.

"We've got a hard game coming up this weekend against Toulouse. That will be another tough game so we're just trying to keep working hard."

The Bulls are last in the Championship standings and have to play catch up after being docked 12 points from the outset of 2017, but the 35-year-old says the Bulls are just taking the season on a game-by-game basis after gaining their first two points.

"Obviously we all know that we have a deficit to catch up, which is now at 10 points. There is no point looking any further ahead than to catch those points up first," Pryce said.

"Everybody is just getting on with the job. We've been in this situation for a good three or four months now, so it's not like it's a new situation.

"It's true for anybody really, when you've got a long pre-season you can't wait to play, but with the unrest and the uncertainly we had, it's good to just get out there and start playing now."

Pryce says the support from the Bulls fans has not wavered despite all the off-field issues.

"They've been amazing, they've been really supportive. They've been to every away game in large numbers," he said.

"The first home game we didn't play too well, it was a cold and horrible night, hopefully in this next match we can put on a good game for them."