MARK APPLEGARTH lamented the “soft underbelly” of his York Knights side after falling to a 36-22 defeat to Catalans Dragons.
York trailed just 6-0 at the break but some poor defensive efforts gave Catalans an 18-0 advantage early in the second half, a deficit the Knights were never able to overturn as they fell to a third straight Super League defeat.
“It was a horror start to the second half and I think that is what has cost us in the end,” said Applegarth.
“I don’t think we touched the ball for the first seven minutes of the second half. That’s so frustrating.
“I admire the spirit that we’ve got as a team. But we’ve got to get rid of the soft underbelly that we’ve got when we go through phases of play like that.
“It stings, but it’ll be groundhog day until we do learn from it. We’ve got to learn from it and we will learn from it but until we do, we’re going to have some frustrating times.”
For Catalans, after three punishing defeats to Leeds Rhinos, Leigh Leopards and Wakefield Trinity, this was a much-needed win.
“The start to the second half showed our intent,” said their assistant coach Ryan Sheridan.
“(Tevita) Satae makes a line break and we score straight from there and we pulled our game back together.
“It became quite nervy at the end and some of the tries that we conceded were due to lapses in concentration and focus, which I think has been the story of our season so far.
“I’m just happy for the players to bounce back after last week. We started so well last week and fell away,” he reflected on a 58-10 defeat at Wakefield Trinity.
“We needed that result. Everybody was hurting off the back of that performance against Wakefield.
“We’ve got a team that are learning and growing together, so this was a great win for us.”