YORK Knights head coach Andrew Henderson believes that his side were "totally outmuscled" by Betfred Championship leaders Featherstone Rovers as they fell to a 46-4 defeat yesterday afternoon.

Despite a battling first-half performance leaving the Knights still in with a chance, they capitulated after the interval, conceding four times in 11 minutes to put any hopes of a fightback firmly out of reach.

Henderson praised the effort showed by his team, but admitted that they found it hard to break forward against a Featherstone defence that has conceded just 54 points so far this season.

"We were totally outmuscled," he said.

“I think the first half I thought that we saw a bit more effort and endeavour from the team.

“I thought that we had a really encouraging start and got some good field position, and that we backed ourselves to try and post some points early because we probably knew that it would take more than two points to beat Featherstone here.

“We probably knew as well that we weren’t going to enjoy as much field position as you might do against some of the other opposition so we backed ourselves there early doors and created a couple of really good chances.

“If we’d have just got our depth right on one or two of the plays or the execution just that little bit tidier, I think that we might have got ourselves over the whitewash there in those early moments of the game.

“After that, I thought that we found it really hard to get out of our own half, that was probably the difference between the two teams.

“I thought that Featherstone really made good yards going forward. So often we were coming off our own try line or inside the 10 and we just didn’t have that physicality to really bend the line back and generate that ruck speed.

“More often than not, Liam Harris was kicking well within our own 40, and sometimes within our own 30 most sets, and therefore we just couldn’t earn that field position to attack their line too often.

“I think that we only had two good ball sets in the second half – the one where we scored the try, and the one with 30 seconds to go as we got a repeat set.

“We just didn’t have the field position today to ask any genuine questions of the opposition, but again, [it was] disappointing at times defensively to concede some of the tries in the nature that we did."

RECAP: Featherstone Rovers 46-4 York Knights 

With opposition including former Hull FC and Hull KR centre Craig Hall, and ex-Huddersfield Giants and Salford Red Devils prop Craig Copczak, the task at hand would always be tough for the Knights, and that proved to be the case.

“For me as a coach, I’ve learned a little bit about certain individuals and where they’re currently at," Henderson continued. "I’m also a little bit understanding too that we’ve got quite a young side.

“Certainly on the edges, we’ve got two 19-year-old wingers, a 19-year-old centre, and it was a good learning day for them with what they had coming at them, [they had] highly experienced, talented players coming at them.

“I think we have to have that reality too that we’re coming up against a team that is stacked full of a load of players that can still play Super League, or have played Super League and got that experience, and I think that showed today, that level of class and that level of difference.

“But I’m certainly not going to excuse the second-half collapse. I thought 14-0 at half time was probably a little bit harsh because I thought that we were competing and that we were in there, but we didn’t have that field position.

“I was disappointed with the way that we capitulated. I thought that we lost the ruck too many times and defensively on the edges, we were caught out with too many of our decisions as well.

“It wasn’t a great day at the office.”