Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell refuses to blame match officials after Challenge Cup final loss to St Helens

There was an excuse available if he wanted it, but Castleford Tigers coach Daryl Powell refused to point a finger at the match officials for his side’s Wembley loss
Tigers fans at Wembley. Picture by Bruce Rollinson.Tigers fans at Wembley. Picture by Bruce Rollinson.
Tigers fans at Wembley. Picture by Bruce Rollinson.

Castleford led 12-6 at half-time of their Betfred Challenge Cup final against St Helens but never recovered after James Roby’s converted touchdown, from a kick, levelled the scores soon afterwards.

Video official Chris Kendall confirmed referee Liam Moore’s on-field decision of try, despite suggestions of a Saints knock-on and the ball hitting the touchline before reaching Roby.

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Reflecting on that incident, Powell said: “There’s that many things that it looked like were wrong with it, but somebody had to go and catch that.

“It looked like it went backwards, but I thought it then hit the line.

“There was a fair bit of doubt in there, but we should have scrambled a bit harder from the inside there and potentially stopped that.

“We have to look at ourselves.”

Powell had “no complaints” about the result and accepted Saints “deserved to win”.

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“I am disappointed, but proud we got here and I thought we had a real go,” he added.

“Physically, we put ourselves on the line but they just got us.

“They defended phenomenally well and we lacked some composure.

“I was disappointed with quite a few bits in our game, particularly in the second half.”

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Tigers were without Suaia Matagi who was taken ill with a sickness bug on Thursday evening.

Alex Foster, originally not due to play, came into the side on the bench.

Powell said: “I’m disappointed for Suaia, I thought he would have had an impact on that game.”

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