York Knights will use Wakefield Semi-Final heartbreak to go one better

The Knights saw their season ended with a 22-13 defeat at the DIY Kitchens Stadium, but not without giving the runaway League Leaders’ Shield winners a real scare along the way.

In fact, York held a 7-6 lead at half time, and then nudged back ahead 13-12 in the second half, only for late tries from Derell Olpherts and Iain Thornley to ultimately put the game out of their reach.

Nonetheless, the visitors could hold their heads high after what has been a remarkable season that has seen Applegarth transform them from a team on the fringes of relegation to one of the Championship’s in-form play-off contenders.

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“I’m disappointed but proud if that makes any sense?” conceded the head coach.

“I thought we had our chances if I’m perfectly honest with you, but you’ve also got to give credit to Wakefield.

“We had a couple of big chances where we could have put ourselves in front with 10 or 12 minutes to go and they’ve just capitalised on a couple of moments that have put them in front, but you’ve got to give credit to the opposition for that.

“I’m really proud of the lads, not only for today’s efforts but for the season. We’ll bottle up how we’re feeling right now and use that as a bit of fuel for the fire to hopefully go one better next year.”

A slow start has become characteristic of the Knights’ performances as of late, and they again fell behind inside 10 minutes when Jermaine McGillvary evaded the tackles of Nikau Williams and Tom Lineham before releasing the supporting Max Jowitt to score beneath the posts.

However, the Knights responded from their first real attack just before the quarter-hour, Williams and Ata Hingano combining on the right edge before Oli Field ghosted through to score into the corner.

And, having defended set after set inside their 20-metre line, they took a shock lead into half time, Liam Harris profiting from Jowitt’s fumble under the high ball to slot over a drop-goal with just seconds until the half-time hooter.

Wakefield though crucially scored the next try after the break, Matty Ashurst breaking through the visiting defence before playing in the supporting Luke Gale to score for a fourth consecutive match against York.

But, with the pressure of reaching the Grand Final weighing on their mind, mistakes soon began to creep into their game, and it wasn’t long until the Knights moved back in front.

Man of the Match Jordan Thompson escaped a tackle, breaking forward 20 metres before releasing Hingano to finish just to the left of the posts.

It though was a case of what might have been had Will Dagger not been brought down metres short on the left edge with just over a quarter of an hour left to play.

Instead of the full-back putting York two tries in front against his former side, Olpherts swung momentum back the hosts’ way, taking advantage of Joe Brown’s untimely slip to cross the whitewash into the left corner.

Thornley then wrapped up victory for Wakefield with six minutes left to play after winning the foot race to Liam Hood’s grubber out wide.

The Knights gave Wakefield a real scare, particularly during the second half. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) And Applegarth admits that whilst there had never been any pressure on his side to come away from West Yorkshire with a result, they would use the fine margins of their defeat to aim for the Grand Final again next year.

“When you’re coming to Belle Vue against the league leaders, there was no pressure on us,” he explained.

“I thought the longer that the game went on, the more the pressure went on to Wakefield. And I thought if Dags had got over, if I’m honest, I thought it would have been really interesting.

“But you block it out, they’ve come up with a ball bounce, they’ve scored that try and then it’s momentum back with them, isn’t it? It just shows you the fine margins that you play with in these sorts of games.

“We gave them a scare, but we don’t want to be happy just giving teams a scare. We want to be clinical and finish these games off.

“We’re going to have to use that as motivation for when we’re in the long off-season and it’s snowing, windy, raining, and hopefully go one better next year.”