JAMES FORD attributed the “clunkiness” showed by York City Knights in their laboured 24-18 win at Newcastle Thunder down to the early loss of Ata Hingano.

Just five minutes had been played by the time that Hingano was taken off with an ankle injury.

Having lost props Pauli Pauli and Masi Matongo to season-ending injuries, head coach Ford had spoken of how crucial Hingano had become to the side at loose forward.

And, in his absence, York struggled to find a clinical edge against the Betfred Championship’s bottom four side Newcastle, who they could only edge past at Kingston Park.

“I think the clunkiness was to do with missing Ata,” said Ford. “We’ve practised all week with him in the middle, dominating our shape and organising our middles.

“That let our halves organise their edges and swing round when they wanted to.

“To lose him after five minutes was a blow and was probably partially the reason why we looked clunky on occasions.

“I think you’ve got to give credit to Newcastle too though. I thought they defended well and really ripped into us.”

The importance of York’s half-backs heightened after losing Hingano, particularly after Ford’s mid-week call for an improvement in the side’s play fives.

Asked whether he witnessed any progress in that area, the coach simply replied: “No.

“With the style of play that we adopt, when the halves are missing their box or kicking it out on the full or kicking it dead, it swing momentum and it’s a good job we’ve got so many hard-working middles and back-rowers, who are so willing to defend those errors.

“We want to improve our play fives and our cohesion on the edges. We’ll have a real crack at that in training and we’re hoping to put it all together in the play-offs.

“If we do, we’ll be some team.”

York eventually prevailed in the North East thanks to a late dummy-half try from interchange Tom Inman, who only featured for the final half-a-dozen minutes.

“Tom wants to pick the ball up off ruck wins and go and challenge either side of the ruck,” added Ford.

“We had planned to get him on in the first half, but losing a middle (Hingano) and another middle (Ronan Dixon, to an Achilles injury) at half time, we didn’t feel like we could get him on and then back off again.

“We wanted to leave Jubby (Will Jubb) on as long as possible, because he’s a fantastic defensive player.

“We were waiting for the right opportunity to get Tom and I’m sure he’ll be disappointed that he only got six or seven minutes, but he made an impact, scoring the try that won us the game.

“He sent a great message off via Ben Cockayne (assistant coach), telling me I should have put him on earlier and we’d have all been a little bit more comfortable. He was probably right.”