Hull KR hooker Matt Parcell believes a slow start and then not following the game plan were the causes of his team’s Challenge Cup semi-final loss to Huddersfield Giants.
The Robins went down 25-4 at Elland Road and were dominated by their Yorkshire rivals.
Behind 12-0 at half-time, Hull KR scored only a solitary try to Shaun Kenny-Dowall, which came too late to influence the result.
“It was a tough day,” Parcell admitted.
“We didn’t play as we had in the last few weeks. We didn’t start how we would have liked and then instead of going back to our game plan we tried to do things we haven’t really done in the past.
“It compounded the errors and it snowballed from there.”
Hull KR went into the game without Lachlan Coote, Mikey Lewis, Albert Vete and Sam Wood, but Parcell declined to make excuses.
“It’s never ideal to be missing key players, but it’s things you can’t control,” the Australian said.
“We just didn’t do what’s been getting us good results over the last couple of months.
“Huddersfield tried to slow us down and they did a good job. But we turned the ball over on the first and second tackles a few times and in semi-finals you can’t do that.
“It’s just going to kill you in the end.”
The Robins have suffered successive losses against Leeds and now the Giants, following coach Tony Smith’s announcement that he is leaving the club at the end of the year.
But Parcell insists his side can turn their season around.
“I think we’ll be okay,” he said.
“Easter is a grind and to be fair we had quite a good Easter with the results. Mentally last week against Leeds we weren’t really there.
“But in the week leading up to the semi-final everyone was switched on. We probably started to chase the game too early and we couldn’t build our way back into it. We should have been smarter about it.
“Right now it’s quite disappointing. We’ll learn from this game and hopefully down the track, towards the end of the season, if we’re in another big game we can learn from this experience.”
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