MARK Applegarth discussed mentality as his York Knights side chase a reaction after back-to-back defeats.
The Knights recently went on a run of three straight victories, propelling them up the Betfred Super League table and erasing looming worries over a dreaded run of form.
However, after back-to-back defeats to fellow strugglers Huddersfield Giants and Toulouse Olympique, York have the monumental task of getting a reaction against one of the Super League heavyweights.
With St Helens visiting the LNER Community Stadium for the first ever time on Saturday (5.30pm), Applegarth discussed his mentality heading into a game where the underdog tag is firmly printed on the Knights.
“We all want to win, we all want to be challenging at the right end of the table, we all want to be competing for trophies,” Applegarth said in this week’s press conference.
“The table doesn’t lie over the course of the year, and currently for where we are as a group, we’re in an accurate position for what performances are showing.
“We’ve got to accept that and we do accept that, then we can move forward from it.
“There are areas of our game that we’ve got to get better at consistently, when we’re on point, we look really good, but there is still that soft underbelly that we need to get rid of.
“That’s a part of the process of becoming a champion team, you’ve got to highlight these areas of weakness whilst not getting too obsessed or too low on it all.
“You’ve also got to highlight your areas of strength and keep championing them.
“Every week, whether we’ve had a good win or a loss, we won’t get too ahead of ourselves.
“We just go one week at a time and the lads have come into training and have absolutely gone after it.
“They’re not done, they know exactly where they need to improve as people and as a team.
“We’ll carry on training hard and getting better.”
Asked where he gets his mentality from, Applegarth admitted that his rugby ideology largely reflects that of his life.
He added: “Just from life, it’s just how life goes. It comes in waves, sometimes you’ve got momentum on your side and sometimes you’ve not and you’ve just got to learn to keep a level head and move forward regardless.
“I think that if you do have that simple mantra in your head, you don’t go too far wrong.
“You’ve got to go through a range of emotions to develop, a lot of people probably emphasise the highs too much and get caught on the lows too much.
“You’ve just got to stay objective about it, make sure you learn your lessons.
“As long as you are learning your lessons, it serves its purpose.
“Life has got a funny way of humbling you if you get too far in front of yourself, and it’s also got a nice way of rewarding you if you carry on putting one front of the next when things aren’t going your way.”
Share