Hull KR coach Craig Sandercock has offered no excuses for the Robins’ defeat at the hands of Castleford on Friday night, and he admits that the Tigers were just too good on the night.
Trailing 18-10 at the break, the red and whites enjoyed plenty of possession and territory in the second half but couldn’t make it count as they came up with too many unforced errors and poor options.
The Tigers ensured their victory with two tries in the final quarter.
“Castleford were way too good for us. They play a good simple game, they play it well and they were too good. We need to make sure we do a lot better with the ball as we had a lot of opportunities bit keep letting teams off the hook with ease. We can’t build pressure and our execution is nowhere near where it should be at this time of year so it’s a matter of working hard on that as we created some enormous opportunities but unfortunately didn’t capitalise on them.”
The Robins went into the game minus the services of suspended duo Mick Weyman and Justin Poore, whilst Jamie Langley was also ruled out after picking up a head knock last weekend.
Jonny Walker then limped off midway through the first half but Sandercock refused to point to those missing troops as a reason for defeat.
“We could have done with Jamie, Mick (Weyman) and Justin (Poore) out there but that’s no excuse,” he added. “We thought we had a bit more depth this year to cover it but that obviously wasn’t the case for us tonight as Castleford were way too good.
“We lost Jonny during the game which was disappointing. It’s his other knee, not the one which was bandaged, and he’ll go for scans as we’re not quite sure what the damage is yet. Rhys got a bit of a whack to the shoulder. I think he’s fine, although I haven’t had an opportunity to talk to the medical staff yet.”
