JOHN DAVIDSON and MARK CHESTNEY caught up with players from Hull KR after the Challenge Cup Final.
RYAN HALL
“It’s probably the worst place to lose. You’ve got to go and get the runners-up medal and watch the other team celebrate up there with elation while we’re looking for a dark place to hide. But you can’t, you’re on a big stage and have to go through all the formalities, so it’s a very tough place to lose, in the manner as well.
“Before the game we talked about regret, disappointment and how they’re different. Obviously, we’re massively disappointed but one of us can come off with any regret. We did leave everything out there. We’ve left the field with no regret because we stuck to our guns.
“(Willie Peters) said we’ve nothing to regret, which in the grand scheme of things is better. He said to feel the disappointment and cross the bridges we need to cross when we have to do that. That’s what we’re proud of, why there’s no regret, because we stuck together as a team when others might have capitulated. We’re very proud how we did stuff, but it still feels like we’ve been shaken out of a tree.
“If you look back at history, (Challenge Cup Final defeat) does galvanise teams, but it’s hard to think about that right now given the circumstances.
“I’m sure there will be conversations along the way that go down that avenue and we’ll cross them when we need to, but right now we want to stick together as a group because we are a team that likes to do that, we are a tight-knit group, we bring our families into that, we stick together.
“Neil (Hudgell) was in there as well and he said the club is on a good trajectory, which is good to be a part of. His vision is for it to go upwards and yes, we missed out on the final here, but the old saying is you’ve to lose one to win one, so we take this as that one and go on and win something.”
KANE LINNETT
“We’ve been in quite a few golden-point games this year. Obviously, we’ve come up with the result on previous occasions but today we just fell a bit short. I’m gutted, but proud of the efforts of the boys.
“It wasn’t just (Brad Schneider’s) fault, the whole attacking set leading into that field goal was a bit off. We probably went too one-out and we were probably too far out to kick a field-goal from there. We probably should have just kicked it in the corner.
“We’ll be better for that performance. A lot of the younger boys haven’t played in a lot of big games. I thought we were in the game; we were in the fight. It was a real arm wrestle and could have gone the other way. Hopefully we can challenge for another trophy at the end of the year and that’s what we have to turn our attention to now.
“It’s got to hurt. We’ve got a game in five or six days and we just have to keep turning up for each other. The effort’s been there. We’ve had a few players out injured and the boys have been unbelievable.
“It was an amazing atmosphere; it was an amazing week. We really wanted to bring the Cup home for (the fans) but hopefully they’re proud of our efforts. We’re just disappointed we couldn’t get the job done.
“It’s been an amazing atmosphere to run out at Wembley. For some of the boys it’s a dream come true, and me coming from Australia to get a run out is pretty special.”
