Aberdeen show Scottish pride in Challenge Cup
Aberdeen Warriors may have lost their Challenge Cup first round tie at Skirlaugh, but coach Craig Parslow is very proud of his team’s efforts.
The Warriors lost the game in East Yorkshire 27-20, but that was an improvement on last year’s result.
In 2014, Aberdeen travelled to Pilkington Recs, where they lost 46-4. Parslow was impressed by the improvement that his players showed last weekend.
“I would like to thank Skirlaugh for hosting us on Saturday and for giving us a hell of a game,” he said.
“We have certainly improved from last year and its something we will endeavour to continue doing in 2015.
“The game was tight. We were maybe a bit shell-shocked in the first 15 minutes, and gave away so much possession from silly errors on first and second tackle in our red zone.
“Skirlaugh capitalised on this and scored three tries putting them up 18-0 within that 15 minutes.
“Once we composed ourselves, started controlling the ball and applied some great pressure we were just off their try line and a perfectly weighted kick from Ali O’Connor hung in the wind to be collected by his halfback partner Tom Aplin, and we scored.
“At that point the game and the team changed and it looked like a bit of self belief was coming through from the Warriors.
“We went on to score some great tries with Shane Clark sniping through on a stab kick from O’Connor, Tom Aplin scored another from a dummy half run and Lawrence Saheibi scored out on the wing.
“I personally I think we should have came out victors but we failed to score when on their line three or four times, came up with silly errors again, and had an interception.
“[We were] just trying to force things that maybe weren’t on.”
Parslow was very proud of the way the players conducted themselves, and felt that they were great ambassadors for the Scottish game.
“Overall I am over the moon with the guys attitudes over the weekend, they presented themselves well.
“The staff were excellent and I am lucky to have them work along side myself. I can safely say that the players gave out a good impression on both Aberdeen Warriors and Scotland Rugby League.
“The club has come so far from last year and I believe if we continue to develop in the way we have been we will be able to hit the second round next year without a doubt.
“Now we look forward to our next set of challenges.”
The next one of those challenges comes on April 25, when the Warriors travel to Ripon in North Yorkshire to face the Royal Engineers rugby league team.