MARK APPLEGARTH admitted that York Knights “didn’t have an answer” to Wigan Warriors’ onslaught.
York conceded 13 tries before scoring four of their own late on for a 72-20 home defeat.
“First and foremost, congratulations to Wigan. I thought they were outstanding, especially in that first half,” said Applegarth.
“They truly showed us the standard and put us to the sword with how they ruthlessly took apart the deficiencies in our game.
“We’ve got to aspire to get to that level, if I’m perfectly honest. I thought they were excellent.
“I don’t think we helped ourselves, especially when we started the game kicking out on the full and inviting a team such as that with that pressure.
“They (Wigan) showed exactly why they’re a champion team.
“There’s two ways you go about it; you either bury your head in the sand and accept where you are, or you aspire to get to that level and you get after it each day, each week and each season, and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“Wigan played the brand that Wigan’s brought, and we knew they were going to bring it. Wigan were ruthless, and the best praise I can give them is that they didn’t do anything that we didn’t know they were going to do, we just didn’t have an answer to stop it in that first half.
“There’ll be individuals that are stinging after that. I’m certainly stinging after that as a head coach.”