York Knights can take lessons from Featherstone defeat

The Knights blew an 18-point first-half lead as they went down 24-22 in a thriller at Featherstone on Good Friday but already have one win over Widnes under their belt this month.

New signing Scott Galeano firmly introduced himself to the UK stage with a brace during their 39-6 1895 Cup quarter-final victory, in which they built on a blistering start to leave themselves just 80 minutes from Wembley.

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York themselves were on the receiving end of an 18-minute blitz at Featherstone, who notched 24 unanswered points as Connor Jones, Caleb Aekins, Ryan Hampshire and King Vuniyayawa all crossed the whitewash early in the second half.

And Applegarth believes the manner of his side’s collapse at Post Office Road will be a learning curve.

“I think firstly we have to give credit to Featherstone for how they came out in that second half and really took it to us,” he said.

“I think the lesson there for us is that there was a 10 or 15-minute period where we let the game slip away from us.

“I think we didn’t play too bad at all, it was just wrestling back control in that 15-minute period where Featherstone were completely all over us. It was probably a great learning curve for us.

“It stung a bit – I think everyone felt the same – but credit to Featherstone, and it’s a good lesson for us to learn going into the next one.”

Mark Applegarth wants to see the Knights be more physical when they entertain Widnes on Sunday. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) Starved of possession, field position, and with unforced errors forcing them to defend set after set inside their own half, it seemed as though the Knights had forgotten how to do the tough stuff at times.

Their defence was nowhere to be seen as both Aekins and the impressive Hampshire skipped their ways through to score, whilst Vuniyayawa was able to brush off attempted tackles all too easily as he crashed over under the posts.

“First and foremost, Featherstone are a good team,” Applegarth continued. “As I said before, their league position probably didn’t reflect just how dangerous a team they can be.

“I think the lesson for us is don’t forget the physical stuff; how Featherstone got on top of us through the ruck. What probably hurt us more, watching the tries back, is that they came through us through our own lack of urgency in ruck control. That’s what stung so much.

“It’s a real easy fix-up to make sure that you’re out-enthusing your opposition in terms of the physicality aspect of the game.

“It’s one that I felt got away from us. We’d done the hard work in terms of building a points advantage and it’s never nice when you’re losing that, but I’m really proud of how we fought right until the death.

“If that kick had another five or 10 metres, who knows, and Ata [Hingano] just getting held up close to the line.

“But you’ve also got to give credit to Featherstone, how they got in front and held onto their lead.

“I think we fell into a couple of old habits that we probably hoped that we’d got away from in those first two or three rounds.

“It’s a good refocus for everyone, we’ve reviewed it and seen where we can fix up, and we’ll be looking forward now to Widnes in what will be another difficult game.”