YORK KNIGHTS coach Mark Applegarth wants the harsh lessons of his side’s Challenge Cup defeat by Hull KR to help them in the league.
Eight tries were conceded in the 44-2 home loss, and while praising his players’ attitude and workrate, Applegarth pointed out: “I think there was one where Hull KR did us through a good play.
“With the others, we either gave them easy field position, came up with a penalty or a yardage error, missed tackles or were under a bit of stress.
“Against a team of Hull KR’s quality, you will get punished. When you play a team of that calibre, it exposes where you are probably weaker.
“Sometimes you need that test to see where you’re at, and we got that.
“I’m definitely proud of the effort levels, but in terms of the standards we want to hit, we’ve got some improvement to make.”
Applegarth added: “One thing we can certainly learn from Hull KR is the composure they showed.
“They didn’t go chasing the scoreboard, they just kept nice and clinical in what they were doing and waited for us to fault, and we did fault.”
