Smith rues missed Wire Wembley chances

Warrington coach Tony Smith acknowledged just how narrow his team’s defeat in Saturday’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley was, but also praised Hull FC‘s effort in victory.

Ben Currie almost clinched the game late on for Wire with a try, but Hull hooker Danny Houghton pulled off a superb tackle to deny the Wolves second rower a winning try.

“It’s a game of inches sometimes,” Smith said, speaking to BBC Sport after the game.

“We probably just allowed them back in with a few of our errors in the second half.

“Our kicking game wasn’t as good as theirs. I thought we did a pretty good job on pressuring Marc Sneyd first half.

“Second half, he came up with two or three really big kicks, like we came up with two or three really big kicks in the first half.

“They can be the difference. Not much between the two teams.

“I thought it was a great game of rugby league. We’re hurting. We don’t like the feeling of it.

“We’ve got to accept it. We’ve got to handle it with dignity. We’ve got to learn from it, and we will.

“Congratulations to Hull. They’ve had to do it the hard way through the Cup to get here as well.

“Not much between us, so well done.”