Grix frustrated after Panthers’ second defeat to Featherstone

Halifax Panthers head coach Simon Grix revealed last week’s dramatic defeat to Featherstone Rovers left his side with broken hearts rather than broken bodies, writes Seb Sternik.

The Blue and Whites fell to their fourth defeat in five games despite leading the Championship leaders 12-4 with just 20 minutes to go.

Halifax, who also gave Brian

McDermott’s side a good run for their money in the Challenge Cup a week earlier, could take a lot of satisfaction from the fact they almost toppled the powerhouse of Championship rugby.

However, considering how close they came to victory, there was evidently some frustration too. Grix said: “Effort is great. I like to think for our team, our club, effort will never be in question. We train hard, we work hard in games. When you do that, more often than not it ends up swinging around and you get the goods at some point.

“I thought we were the better team for large parts of it, but we just didn’t quite have enough at the right times and some really unfortunate incidents within.

“We were in-front with probably 15 to go, Louis Jouffret goes through, it’s a two versus one, and his hamstring goes.

“There’s a few other little bits and bobs in there but I think Featherstone will probably say the same. I thought we took the game to them from minute one. A couple of special players they’ve got probably made the scoreline a little more flattering than it should have been.”

During the match there were a number of contentious calls made by the match official.

When asked whether he was frustrated by some of the decisions, Grix said: “Yes, very. I think Brian will probably have same, we all see it in different ways. But I think there’s a few incidents in the game, one that kind of broke our back a little bit.”