No excuses for Toronto ill-discipline at Warrington, insists Paul Rowley

Toronto coach Paul Rowley said his side’s discipline needed to be better in their defeat to Warrington.

The Wolfpack were knocked out of the Challenge Cup following a 66-10 defeat to the Wolvesat the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Sunday.

Toronto had Andrew Dixon red carded (punching) as well as Liam Kay (dangerous tackle), Darcy Lussick (dissent) and Josh McCrone (dissent) being sent to the sin bin.

Rowley admitted that their ill-discipline cost them the game, but says the team take full responsibility for it.

He said: “You can’t play with three men in the bin and one with a red card against a team full of confidence and who are playing well on their home pitch.

“I thought some were harsh (calls) and some weren’t. From our point of view, we need to bite our lip or be better. I don’t think by any means that you can compare it to the Featherstone-Hull game. I don’t think it had a bad taste to it at all. Both teams played tough and fair.

“(Harvey) Livett started a scuffle and Dixon wrongly punched out and got a red card. That is poor from our part, so we deserve what we got in that respect and we were our own worst enemy.

“I thought the red card ruined the game and we were responsible for our discipline and we take responsibility for that. Josh McCrone treated the referee with respect, he questioned the referee in something which he asked them to do with no foul language or disrespect, but respect is a two-way street and he got binned for it.

“We accept responsibility for not being good enough in terms of our discipline or how we have dealt with situations. We should have been better.”

The Wolfpack were only 12-10 down at the break, following a 39^thminute try from Wolves winger Josh Charnley.

And Rowley thinks the game will be a good learning curve for the Canadian club.

He added: “We really wanted to put our best foot forward and I thought we did that in the first half.

“Our two missed goal-kicks were the difference in us going in front at half-time or not. I thought we deserved to be in front, we were dominating every aspect and it looked a very tight game.

“In the first half, the pressure looked to be telling on Warrington the longer the game went on and they didn’t like that pressure.

“I didn’t think we handled the second half nowhere near as good as we should have done and we don’t accept that as a club or as individuals. We won’t let it dampen our enthusiasm going forwards and the lessons of the first half will certainly be taken in but the nightmares of the second half will be the thing that will keep us awake tonight.”

Rowley revealed that winger Adam Higson has suffered a suspected broken collar bone and will be assessed further this week.