LEIGH Centurions first-team coach Paul Rowley gives his comment on the team’s 54-16 loss at Halifax in the Northern Rail Cup quarter finals.

“Halifax taught us a lesson today on how to play fast entertaining rugby league.

“We started on some real positive notes and Halifax got a try against the run of play.

“They did seem to get the bounce of the ball on quite a few occasions but unfortunately for us we didn’t know how to deal with the adversity and the pressure told and we crumbled which is more than a bit disappointing but they piled on the pressure and did a very good job on us.

“We went into the game confident, we prepared well all week and like I said, things probably went against the run of play at the start of the game but rather than turn them into positives, those negatives just built up around us and whether it be a turnover, a spilled ball or a bounce, they kept going against us.

“Like I’ve said to the lads, that sort of luck, you make your own. St Helens have not been lucky for 10 years, it usually happens to the dominant team and in this case it was Halifax.

“The late tries were no consolation. I think overall we were beaten by a better side. We got a couple of cheeky soft tries at the end but the game was dead then.

“We breached Halifax on a number of occasions in that first half but they had the cutting edge and the pace to finish their chances off and that’s where we lacked. We lacked that final pass, or that pace to finish the tries off. They are certainly a very fast team and they play entertaining football.

“One thing that really hurt us was the finish to our sets. I stressed all week that with Halifax being a short pitch we had to win a battle for territory and we had to complete and finish sets very strongly with a positive finish and I think we turned the ball over on tackles three and four or the ball went dead or we gave 20 metre restarts.

“We certainly did anything but have a positive finish to our sets and that was a major factor for our downfall.

“I thought Andy Ainscough, along with Macgraff Leuluai who came back into the side, went very well for us. They can hold their heads up high and at the other end of the scale, Ian Watson, again proved that he’s not a one-man team but he certainly keeps going in adversity.”