Hi, it’s a sore Luke here.

Well, that was a night and a half, wasn’t it?

It’s hard to know exactly which were the g reater emotions after our 24-24 draw at Warrington .

We were obviously delighted with the way we took complete control to lead 23-6 after 50 minutes, bitterly disappointed to let them back in to edge 24-23 ahead and then delighted again to snatch the late draw with Broughy’s drop goal.

I suppose there was also a fair bit of frustration over some of the tries Warrington scored, particularly Ben Harrison’s second, when we thought he’d grounded the ball short, but referee Ben Thaler and video referee Phil Bentham felt the ball had just about touched the tryline.

To us, it looked as if his momentum had stopped and he then cheekily rolled the ball forward after the tackle had been completed to make it look as if he’d scored.

But, to be honest, it wasn’t the call that really disappointed us as a group. It was the fact we gave him a clear run to our line from 10m and three of our boys failed to stop him getting as close as he did.

In other words, it was our own fault that this whole set of circumstances arose in the first place.

Fortunately, we didn’t let it affect us. We didn’t crumble under the growing pressure, we held strong and were then able to salvage a point in that amazing final minute.

First of all, Leroy used his freakily expanding arms – they’re even longer than Eorl’s, believe it or not – to stretch out and intercept Michael Monaghan’s pass and put us in the position for Broughy to slot over that one-pointer.

As you probably realise, it was a play that Broughy and myself had been thinking about in the last couple of minutes, which was why
everything went as well in the build-up to the one-pointer as it did.

That was clearly a cause for celebration and helped make the bus journey back home a little more pleasant, although it wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve experienced.

By the time we climbed onto the coach, my head was throbbing a bit after I’d made sure our medical staff had worked hard patching me up.

I suffered not one but two cuts to the head after getting far closer to opponents than I would have liked.

My first involved Gareth O’Brien which left me needing nine stitches above my eye, and then I discovered Trent Waterhouse’s knee is much harder than my head in a second accidental incident which required a further three or four stitches.

At the time, the knocks don’t really bother you – in fact, I seem to play better after I’ve cut my head! – and it’s only when the game’s over that the soreness takes a hold.

And it’s safe to say I was feeling sore the morning after the game.

But taking the bangs are, of course, an occupational hazard, and you’ve just got to live with this. The pain’s also never as bad if you’ve had a positive result in the process.

So I’d take a bit of a bang ahead of a defeat any day!