MARC SNEYD became only the second player ever to win the Lance Todd Trophy three times but he declared he’d rather not have won it after Warrington’s defeat on Saturday.
He was man of the match twice at Wembley for Hull FC in leading them to back-to-back Challenge Cup glories in 2016 and 2017, and was the clearly the best player on the pitch as Warrington were pipped at the death by Hull KR.
It looked like a game plan based around his masterful kicking game had done enough to upset the odds, with Sneyd gaining 31 of the 37 Lance Todd votes.
Sneyd joins Sean Long in having won the trophy three times, while it was the third time in five years that the winner had been on the losing team.
He said: “I’d rather not want it if I’m being honest, which is quite a bold statement.
“Not many people have done it three times. When I retire I will probably look back and be proud, but for the time being I’d rather not.”
As an experienced campaigner in the Warrington side – it was Sneyd’s fourth final and the second time he had finished on the losing side after losing in 2014 while with Castleford – Sneyd went round to many of his team-mates on the pitch after the match to lift them up.
He added: “There’s a lot of heads down in the changing room. They’re always difficult to take but I feel like we’ll take a lot from it. We’ve got a fair few young lads in there. I know what it’s like to lose when you’re young and it stings. But they’ll learn from it.
“It’s tough. The older you get, you deal with it better, but it still stings a lot. For 77 minutes, we were by far the better team, but at the end of the day it’s an 80-minute game.
“They played well for that three minutes better than us, and they did what they do well. In the end, it paid off for them.
“Hull KR have been in and around finals for the last few years, and they’re there for a reason.
“They’re a top club and they’re doing all the right things on the field. In my opinion, they’re the best at doing it.”