Ex-Leeds Rhinos ace Tui Lolohea not to blame for Cup final defeat says Ian Watson

Giants were pipped 16-14 by Wigan Warriors in front of a 51,628 crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after leading for much of a thrilling contest.

Lolohea, playing at full-back, was one of four ex-Leeds men in the final, alongside Giants’ Owen Trout and Ashton Golding and Brad Singleton of Wigan.

The Tongan provided the final pass for two of Giants’ touchdowns and made a brilliant try-saving tackle on Jai Field late in the game. But he missed with four of his five attempts at goal – three conversions and a penalty – and that proved decisive when Liam Marshall scored less than four minutes from time to win the game for Wigan.

Of Lolohea’s off day with the boot, Watson insisted: “It is what it is, we still could have won the game. I have had a good chat with Tui, he is going to beat himself up about missing the goals, but there’s other reasons why we lost the game that we have to look at, rather than the kicks.”

Losing pack leader Chris Hill to a calf injury in the first half was a huge blow for Giants and Watson felt Wigan’s Morgan Smithies could have been sin-binned or seven sent-off for a high tackle on Ricky Leutele after the break.

“It was massively tough,” Watson said of Saturday’s defeat. “I don’t think we could have done too much more.

“The boys put in an enormous shift and I thought we were outstanding as a group.

“We were the better team for large parts of the game and we haven’t got what we deserved. It hurts because of how much effort they’ve put in.”

Huddersfield travel to Catalans Dragons on Friday and play host to Rhinos a week later and Watson stressed they are now focused on reaching – and winning – this season’s Betfred Super League Grand Final.

“It is going to affect them for a while and they are going to be a bit sore on the back end of it,” he added of the Challenge Cup loss.

“But what we have got to do now is bounce back pretty quickly and show everybody what we are about as a club. We have got a couple of injuries, which won’t help, but this has got to be the start of something for us at Huddersfield, to build a platform for going forward.

“This was our first final and you could see the anticipation and nervousness before the game, but they have experienced it now and hopefully they can use that going forward.”

Watson admitted: “It [the defeat] will hurt me, I don’t like losing. I want to be a winner, but this won’t deter me from what we are doing, as it wouldn’t if we’d won.

“I still want to win the Grand Final at the back end of the year and that’s becoming, hopefully, our standard as a group now.

“It’s bitterly disappointing, but I am proud of the group and now we’ve got to kick on again, get over this and look to the Grand Final.”

The Lance Todd Trophy went to Giants second-rower Chris McQueen. It was the second successive year a player on the losing team has been named man of the match, after Castleford Tigers’ Niall Evalds against St Helens last season.

“It’s something I am extremely proud of, but I’d give it back for the other trophy,” McQueen admitted.

He said: “We could and should have won. I’m proud of the boys, but disappointed for the whole club. I don’t think we deserved what we got.”

Lolohea opened the scoring with a penalty goal before Huddersfield had been in possession and Leutele went over for the first try.

Harry Smith converted his own try to level the scores, but McQueen touched down to give Giants a 10-6 interval lead.

Jermaine McGillvary edged them ahead for the third time with a try after Field had crossed, Smith converting, for Wigan. It seemed McGillvary’s score would be the winner, but in the closing moments Smith placed a superb kick behind Giants’ defence and Marshall touched down to break Giants’ hearts.

Huddersfield Giants: Lolohea, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Leutele, Senior, Cogger, Russell, Hill, Levi, Wilson, Jones, McQueen, Yates. Subs English, Greenwood, Trout, Golding.

Wigan Warriors: Field, French, Thornley, Bibby, Marshall, Cust, Smith, Singleton, O’Neill, Byrne, Farrell, Bateman, Smithies. Subs Leuluai, Mago, Ellis, Havard.

Referee: James Child (Dewsbury).

Attendance: 51,628.