No excuses for Tigers as they collapse on biggest stage
CASTLEFORD captain Michael Shenton refused to blame the absence of Zak Hardaker for his team’s worst performance of the season as they crashed to a 24-6 defeat to Leeds in the Grand Final.
The Tigers beat the Rhinos four times in Super League this year to finish 10 points clear of them in claiming the League Leaders’ Shield for the first time in their 91-year history – but they collapsed in dramatic fashion on the big stage at Old Trafford.
They came unstuck in the wet conditions and coach Daryl Powell was forced to reshuffle his side after the shock withdrawal of Hardaker just 48 hours beforehand – but Shenton insisted there were no excuses.
“That was a quality team we put out there with some outstanding players but we didn’t play to our potential whatsoever,” he said.
“We can’t blame it on that. We haven’t spoken about it for the last few days, we’ve moved on.
“We had a great session on Friday, I thought the preparation was good. We were quite relaxed going into it, I thought we handled the build-up well but we made too many big, big errors in important times in the game. Leeds won all the little battles out there.
“That was not the top-of-thetable team you’ve seen all year.
“It’s massively disappointing but we’re going to stick together and move on.
“We’re going to have some boys going out to the World Cup, then we’ll have a good off-season and get over this.
“It’s tough to take at the moment but there’s been plenty of positives to take out of the season, and Leeds taught us a few good lessons.”
Castleford were in danger of becoming the first team to be ‘nilled’ in a Grand Final before Mike McMeeken went over for the last try of the game, but that was little consolation for the league leaders.
“We save our worst for the biggest occasion,” said scrum-half and newly-crowned Man of Steel Luke Gale.
“It’s a real disappointment. I’ve never played in a game where a team has made that many errors.”