KEIRON Cunningham bemoaned his side’s poor start after they went down 30-18 at Leeds.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t get off the bus for the first 10 or 15 minutes when we come to Leeds,” he said. “We seem to want to give one of the best sides in the comp a leg up.
“To give someone 16 points is tough to chase up, especially at Headingley, but I thought that the middle 20 after the opening 15 minutes was our best period to date.
“We scored some nice tries and got into some rhythm after the opening quarter. We kicked the ball well and did what we have been doing well and have been building to.
“The game was really scrappy and open in that first half and both sides weren’t completing their sets well. I said whichever side took a grip of things, and kicked best, would win it. But we decided we didn’t want to do that.
“For us to go in two points up or four points down didn’t have a bearing for me. We knew we could score when we got down to their line and play our plays. But we had to be involved for long periods. We didn’t do that.
“We needed composure from our leaders and needed to kick the ball well. But considering where we were the previous few weeks we looked like a different team.”
He continued: “We have to learn from this. We are a big club who wants to be involved in big games.
“We don’t want to succumb to the pressures of playing champion sides.”
