PAUL COOKE says Featherstone Rovers will learn the lessons of their Challenge Cup exit at Catalans Dragons.
“We were brave but we were also stupid at times,” said the coach.
“Especially at the back of the first half and into the second period, there were far too many penalties and we gave Catalans far too many sets against us.
“That all caught up with us in the first 20 minutes of the second half, then off the back of a ball steal there were a couple of shortcuts taken and in the end it cost us 24 points inside 19 minutes and the game is over.
“I have to praise the effort, especially in the last 20 minutes, but we can’t gloss over our mistakes and we will learn some lessons from it.
“We spoke about coming here and being tough when things don’t go our way and about trying to get through those tough periods, and I thought we did that on a couple of occasions.
“But we need to look at what we are doing to put ourselves in those positions. We’ve got to fix that up quickly.
Catalans coach Steve McNamara said: “These games are notoriously difficult games, the Championship teams always come and give you a great effort.
“I thought we should have scored a couple more tries in the first half but the second half was very good for us.
“I’d like to have played a bit faster with the ball. The referee gave us a few six-agains because the opposition were trying to slow the ruck down so we had to find a way to speed up the game.
“We probably needed a bit more intent in our defence but we had a high completion rate so when you add the two things up I was pleased with the team.
“There will be eight really good teams in the quarter-finals but we’ve got two very important games in Super League before that with Castleford and St Helens so we will look at those first.
“We don’t have any major injury concerns from this game. Alrix Da Costa got a bit of a dead leg but I think we’re OK.”
