Super League coach says his side aren’t “tough enough”

It was a vitally important weekend in Super League with Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR going to golden point, Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves colliding and St Helens and Catalans Dragons meeting in a classic but a vital fixture was the clash between Hull FC and Castleford Tigers.

Castleford had a chance to move four points clear from Wakefield Trinity after Trinity lost to Huddersfield Giants on Friday. A win would have been a decisive step towards survival for Cas but a win was vital for Hull FC as well.

It would have kept their hopes of play-off rugby alive and it was also key that they maintained their momentum after winning the derby last week.

It was all square at halftime but a strong start to the second half from the Black and Whites turned the game as Andy Last would reflect after the game: “It’s really frustrating. We felt like we were in a good space going into half time. There were just a couple of things we felt we needed to touch on but we didn’t go out and execute what we spoke about like tidying up our ball control.

“The Satae barge-over try is very dubious, whether he got it down or not but we have to show more resilience.

“At the kick-off, we’re still worrying about not getting the call off the referee. They go back-to-back and suddenly the scoreboard pressure is on you and we’re chasing the game.

“Even after that we get back in the game we then can’t take the kick-off and they score from that.”

This came as Last said on Tigers TV that his side aren’t “tough enough mentally”.

He said: “We just aren’t quite resilient and tough enough mentally to deal with that pressure and those mistakes when they happen.

“When you’re in that confident headspace and in that zone you don’t let things rattle you. You just get on with the next job and stick to the process.

“There’s a little bit of negativity and a feeling that everything is against us. We need to be better than that.”