WOLVES’ head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith did not hold back in pointing out the error of his team’s ways in the 34-10 defeat at Hull FC on Friday night.
Tries from Matty Russell and Joe Westerman helped The Wire respond to the Airlie Birds’ 12-0 lead inside 11 minutes and the game was still in the melting pot as the sides turned around at 14-10.
Other than a Jack Hughes disallowed try at the start of the second half, it was then all Hull FC and Smith pointed his finger at discipline, a poor kicking game and not taking the right options in attack.
“We weren’t far off in the first half,” he said.
“We ended up clawing back our fair share of possession in the first half after a slow start of possession.
"We fought hard to get back into that game before half time and we did.
"The start after half time was pretty good after a great run by Joe Philbin.
"I'm not sure about the try being disallowed. I'm not sure that he (Philbin) was trying to make it into an obstruction or he (Marc Sneyd) make the tackle.
"If he (Sneyd) had genuinely just gone for the tackle and not made it, then I would understand.
“It may well have not changed things, but just to get our noses in front it maybe would have given us a bit of momentum, maybe not.
"After that we just couldn't get hold of the ball.
"When we had our seventh set in the second half, they had 14.
"The penalty count was 8-2 at one point and it ended up pretty even but by that stage they were 18 points ahead and we were chasing the game before we started to claw that possession back.
"It's too hard to do that, the damage was done.
“I thought our kicking game was very, very average, getting closer to the other end of the scale.
“Recently it’s not been bad, and that helps. Marc Sneyd was good with the kicking game for Hull, and it’s a big difference in these evening games or if it’s a little bit greasy and the ball isn’t flowing like you would like it to.
“I thought we came up with some pretty average options in that second half. We certainly weren’t in full flow but when you’ve had to defend as much as we did it certainly takes away from your impetus and your fluency with the ball.
“We’ll dust ourselves off as we do and we’ll come back stronger. We’ve got a week to get ready and head into another big battle (against St Helens).”
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