Wire were 'better side' in cup final loss - Burgess

Sam Burgess said his Warrington Wolves side will take "hard lessons" from their Challenge Cup final defeat

Head coach Sam Burgess felt his Warrington Wolves side were "the better side" despite suffering late heartbreak in the Challenge Cup final.

A late try from Tom Davies and Mikey Lewis' conversion gave Hull Kingston Rovers a narrow 8-6 victory at Wembley Stadium, but Burgess said he was proud of his team's performance.

"It's tough for the players," Burgess told BBC Sport. "I thought that we were good today and executed our game plan well.

"We were physical when we needed to be and I thought we were the better side - I really do.

"It's going to be a tough one for the guys to take. I don't have a great deal to say because I was proud of our performance and the end of the game was a bit of a blow for me really."

Burgess also revealed that the defeat was compounded by a facial fracture for winger Matt Dufty which will now see him miss a chunk of the Super League season.

"Matt Dufty broke his cheek or eye socket with about 25 minutes to go and was trying to get to the end of the game, but it just popped out," said Burgess.

"We'll be without Duft for a little while but it was outstanding to try to play through the pain. It's just unfortunate we didn't get the job done for him."

Burgess has the job of lifting his players before next weekend's trip to Leeds Rhinos, a game they need to win to stay in the mix for the top six places in the Super League table.

"We will take some hard lessons out of today," he said. "I'll be OK but the players put a lot of effort in so emotionally it's going to be a tough couple of days for them but it's their job.

"We have to bounce back, we have to find a way and move forward."

Wolves to support Lindop

Wire half-back Marc Sneyd was in the unusual position of being awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance despite ending on the losing side, but he said "I don't really want it to be honest".

He said the Wolves players would rally around 19-year-old Arron Lindop, who allowed a grubber kick to squirm under his body, with Davies touching it down to level the scores late on before Lewis' winning goal.

"We were very, very unfortunate and I feel for [Arron] Lindop," said Sneyd. "We'll get round him and sort him out out. It is what it is.

"It'd part and parcel of it. To him that will be the end of the world but you live and learn and he will be better for it.

"They (Hull KR) know how to play for 80 minutes and unfortunately we played for 78 today."