‘A GAME of two halves’ was how Mark Applegarth summed up York Knights’ 30-22 defeat to Toulouse Olympique, with the head coach frustrated by a damaging first-half.
York’s trip to the south of France looked to be falling flat after the opening 40 minutes, with the Knights trailing by 28 points.
They fought back admirably in the second-half, conceding just two points and recording 22 of their own, but it was too little too late for Applegarth and his players.
The boss admitted that he will now go away and review his own messages, and questioned the ‘behaviours’ shown on the pitch in the opening half.
“It was definitely a tale of two halves, wasn’t it?” Applegarth told BBC York.
“Ultimately we left ourselves with too much to do, if I’m dissecting it right after a game, I need to look at my own messages first and foremost.
“Making sure I set the tone right going out of the sheds and on what we needed to execute.
“That first-half, it wasn’t even a skill thing that I was chasing, it was more the behaviours that we want to be known for.
“I thought we lacked a little bit of intent, we lacked connection, I don’t think we were showing up for each other and we started to rely on other people to do the hard stuff.
“I’m definitely disappointed with that, but I’m also really proud with how we responded at half-time – that was more like us in the second-half.
“Ultimately, you give a team such as Toulouse a 28 point start on you, you’re always going to be chasing your tail.”
Whilst a lot will be made from that York first-half performance, with a penalty-ridden performance and shipping 28 points, Applegarth took the time to recognise the impressive efforts of their hosts.
In ending a three match winning run for the Knights, Toulouse won a third game on the spin of their own, keeping Applegarth’s side from leapfrogging them in the Betfred Super League standings.
Applegarth just wishes his team played how they did in the second-half throughout the entire 80 minutes, saying: “They’ve got some excellent players, obviously led by Ollie [Ashall-Blott], but throughout the pack we knew they had strike.
“Credit to them, I think they are in excellent form at the moment.
“We knew exactly what we had to do, but like I said, I thought we lacked a little bit of intent and execution in that first-half.
“If we had of turned up from minute one with how we played in that second-half, it would have been a lot more of an even contest from the go.
“I definitely don’t want to take anything away from Toulouse, I’m just really disappointed, as you would be.
“Conceding 28 points in the manner that we did in the first-half, we’ll dissect that, making sure I got the tone right and the messages right.
“I don’t think anyone can complain about our prep, we had a full day of prepping on it today.
“It’s just a disappointing night, but we’ll draw a line under it, move on, and get ready for another difficult game against Huddersfield on Saturday.”
Having crumbled to a disappointing display in the first-half, second-half tries from Oli Field, Sam Wood, Nikau Williams and Tom Inman saw the Knights narrow the deficit to within eight points by full-time.
That turnaround came through ‘honest’ conversations at the break, with Applegarth explaining: “We were just honest. It’s not just me you got the reaction from, I think that everyone needed to be honest with themselves.
“My job at times is to unlock those emotions and unlock those conversations.
“I think everyone was a little bit displeased with how we’d gone about our business in that first-half, and especially with how we’d gone about our business over the last month after that Wigan game.
“I was really pleased we got that response, and I know that that is what we want to be known for.
“We also want to make sure that we don’t tip our toe like we did there in that first-half again.”
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