By KEITH McGHIE
WARRINGTON hooker Danny Walker admitted that he and his team-mates were deeply disappointed by their Challenge Cup performance on Saturday, but he is confident they can win at least one trophy later in the season.
“We are gutted but are already trying to spin the positives from it,” Walker told League Express.
“It’s our first final as a group and hopefully we can learn from it and come back stronger.
“I felt we just didn’t play our game – it was 60 percent (completion) at half-time and you can’t win big games playing like that.
“Harry Smith does what he does – he pins you in a corner and you have to try your best to get out of there.
“I can’t tell you how many times that seemed to happen this afternoon, but we have to try and learn our lessons and move on.
“The try we scored with about 14 minutes left, which is loads of time in Rugby League and, with the squad that we have, we are capable of scoring from anywhere.
“But it just wasn’t our day.
“I can understand why people might say we froze as there are about twelve of us in there for whom it was our first final.
“We have a ‘Wire way’ and weren’t playing that way – we were playing dumb and we never got into a rhythm.
“We struggled with completions and getting to our kicks and we’ve done it right all year but just couldn’t do it this afternoon.
“We are going to get back on the training paddock and come back fighting – there are still two trophies to play for and we still have over half a season to go.
“The crowd was incredible, especially in a financial crisis.
“They’ve come down here in numbers spending hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds, and I hope we have both put on a show they can remember.
“Rugby League is a family and look at how people have responded to Rob Burrow.”
First published in League Express newspaper, Issue 3,434 (June 10, 2024)
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