Doncaster Knights: '˜I take the blame for cup defeat' - Griffiths

Speaking after he had studied footage of the club’s 38-19 defeat, the Welshman said: “Of course we wanted to win. Obviously the league is our main priority but we felt we could do well in both.”

Griffiths rung the changes for the club’s second game at the Mennaye Field in the last couple of weeks.

But he insisted: “I picked a side that I thought would be good enough to win the game. We had guys in on dual-registration who have played in the Premiership, LV Cup and the European Challenge Cup and although they aren’t Doncaster players they train with us so we’ve no excuse.

“We also had a very strong bench and the intention was to bring them on if we needed to raise the bar at any time during the game.

“We got off to a slow start but only trailed 10-7 at half time and had chances to come in ahead.

“They scored two tries after the restart but we got it back to 24-14 and I thought we might do something but the referee failed to spot an horrendous obstruction in the build-up to their fifth try and that was it.

“I take the blame – even though I didn’t miss any tackles or go away from the game-plan.

“I picked the team and decided the tactics but on the day we were unable to execute those tactics and were beaten by a team which showed more hunger on the day.”