Luke Yates urges Huddersfield to use defeat as motivation to win Super League
Huddersfield captain Luke Yates has urged his side to use the Challenge Cup defeat as motivation to go on and win the Super League.
It was the 26-year-old’s second defeat in a final, having lost the cup with Salford under Ian Watson in 2020.
Yates’ men were on course to bring the trophy back to Huddersfield for the first time in 69 years until being rocked by a try four minutes from the end by Wigan winger Liam Marshall.
However, Yates has told his played to soak up the “horrible” feeling following the heartbreak defeat at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“I told them just to take some stock on how horrible this feels,” Yates said. “I’ve done this in 2020 as well, it’s such a horrible feeling.
“We need to stay together and use it as motivation for the back end of the season and go on and win the Super League.
“Obviously we’ll take a couple of days and then re-focus.”
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With both sides crossing for three tries, the difference on the day came down to goal-kicking. Tui Lolohea took the responsibility, with regular kicker Oliver Russell resting a hamstring problem.
Lolohea converted just two attempts on the day, but Yates insisted that it wasn’t something to blame.
“We should have been able to score enough tries to put them away,” Yates said. “It does hurt that Russ, our main goal-kicker, had hurt his hamstring, but we’re not putting any pressure on Tui to bear that loss.
“It is what it is. We should have been able to keep the pressure on them to win. It was an unlucky bounce at the end.
“It’s professional sport isn’t it, two good teams going at it. We were probably the better side for the majority of the game but they were good enough to come back and bite us at the end, so fair play to them.”
READ MORE: The better side lost says Huddersfield boss Ian Watson
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