Hunslet: Coach Thornton orders off the shackles

The Parksiders’ eight-game winning run was ended when they lost 32-12 at Bradford in Betfred League One.

Hunslet are at home to Keighley Cougars on Good Friday and then play host to Bradford in a delayed Cup clash three days later. “I think we can take some confidence out of the game,” Thornton said of the defeat at Odsal two days ago.

“We are looking forward to the Challenge Cup game; I think that might be a different affair.

“But we have got Keighley to look forward to first.”

Thornton felt Hunslet were too conservative in their approach to the league fixture.

He reflected: “I don’t think we played enough.

“It was a big game for some of our young players and we went into our shells a bit.”

Thornton added: “The scoreline maybe didn’t reflect the game.

“They scored a lot of tries on the back of our errors and some poor defence after that.

“We didn’t defend back-to-back sets well and let in some soft tries. We didn’t play as expansive as we wanted to and didn’t express ourselves.

“I thought we could have tested them more and our ill-discipline let us down at times.”

Thornton said Hunslet came through with no major injuries.