Leeds Rhinos coach Richard Agar admits ‘we got away with one’ against Castleford Tigers
RELIEVED BOSS Richard Agar admitted Leeds Rhinos’ “got away with one” when they beat Castleford Tigers 28-24 tonight.
Tigers had loose-forward Oliver Holmes sent off in the first half, but led until 11 minutes from time before Rhinos finally wore them down.
Agar admitted his side suffered from several “brain explosions” – and described Leeds’ play which led to Tigers’ second try, after Rhinos were in possession following the half-time hooter, as “rubbish”.
He said: “It was hard to watch from us, there was a lot of really scruffy periods, interjected with enough good stuff in there to find a way to win.
“In the first half we tried to play around them, rather than do the tough stuff direct and through them – then in the second half when they had 12 men and we wanted a bit of ball movement we got a bit too one-out.”
Agar stressed: “I am going to credit the opposition, they held us up over the goal line a number of times, came up with some tremendous last-ditch tackles and did it with 12 men.
“They made it really, really hard.”
Tigers boss Daryl Powell felt his side were “awesome”.
He said: “We didn’t play great in the first half and getting a player sent off was going to make it difficult, but in the second half I thought we were great.
“We scrambled and worked our backsides off for each other. There were loads of positive signs in there.”
Holmes was dismissed for kicking out at Richie Myler.
Powell said “It’s poor discipline [from Holmes], but I don’t think it was a sending-off.”
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