Daniel Anderson: We just wouldn’t give it up

Jun 2 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

ST HELENS coach Daniel Anderson felt his side’s desire not to relinquish their long unbeaten cup record fuelled his side to the end as Hull KR coach Justin Morgan called for video referees at all games after his side’s narrow Challenge Cup loss.

Rovers went close to ending the holders’ remarkable run in the competition as they twice came back to level before going down 24-18 in their quarter-final at Craven Park. Saints, winners for the past two years, have not lost a cup tie since going down to Hull in the semi-finals of the 2005 competition.

Anderson said: “The 17 men had to do a job. Hull KR were exceptional in their desire.

“If it was a league game maybe we wouldn’t get there for some of those tackles.

“ I don’t know what it is, we just had to do it because there is no redemption. We just wouldn’t give it up. They were a little unlucky but I don’t think we were unlucky.”

Saints eventually triumphed four tries to three after Ade Gardner touched down 10 minutes from time but Rovers were aggrieved to have tries for Shaun Briscoe and Ben Cockayne disallowed in the first half by referee Ashley Klein.

Morgan believes had the match been televised, as two of the other ties this weekend were, the referee may have referred his decisions – which he gave as obstruction and failure to ground respectively – to technology and the outcome could have been different.

Morgan said: “I don’t think we were robbed, we did enough to deserve to win. I couldn’t see whether it was a try or not. I can’t tell after one look.

“I will live with the decisions but it was a good advert for video referees at all games.

“ This is a massive clash. If a video referee shows it not to be a try then, fair enough, I will have to accept the decision, but my natural instinct was that it was a try.”

Rovers, led impressively by their new half-back combination of Michael Dobson and Paul Cooke, created enough opportunities to win but Morgan felt they did not make enough of their possession.

They had led early on through Cooke with other tries coming from Daniel Fitzhenry and Jake Webster.

Chris Chester also went close in a tight finish but lost the ball – he claimed it was punched out – over the line.

Morgan added: “I could have asked for a bit more patience and composure. We had chances but weren’t capable of executing them.”

There was little conjecture about Saints’ first two tries from Willie Talau and Maurie Fa’asavalu but there was a debate over whether there was a double movement from Sean Long in scoring the third and Anderson admitted using a video referee might be fairer, and said: “It is a big game not to use every available resource. From the quarter-finals onwards it may be a fair call.”