Cunningham embarassed after Cup exit

Correspondent

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham has spoken of embarassment and frustration following his team’s Challenge Cup elimination at the hands of Hull FC.

Saints were blown off the park in the second half at Langtree Park by the Black and Whites.

“We lost the ruck and didn’t do the fundamentals around there well, which we have been doing recently,” Cunningham said.

“But all credit to them, they played well. It was embarrassing at certain times down the middle and it’s difficult to put your finger on it why going forward.

“We trained outstandingly during the week and we have been building some combinations over the last two weeks. But today we were really poor defensively.

“They are the areas we work on so it is very frustrating for us. Even when we were down you always think you can do something but we lost the energy battle early in the game and that had a knock on effect.

“We had a foothold at times but our defence was poor, regarding one on one defence. That is a mental thing we have address.”

Next up St Helens face Salford on Friday evening.

“We have to try and find something and kick on into the next part of the competition,” he said.

“We have a big game on Friday night now. We will see how we scrub up and get out there and try and put right a few wrongs.”