HE had just become only the second Hull player to score two tries in a Wembley final but the value of the achievement was lost on Kirk Yeaman after Saturday's 28-16 defeat by St Helens.
The centre kick-started a stirring fightback for Hull by intercepting a pass by Keiron Cunningham to sprint 80 metres and score his first try two minutes into the second half before adding a second 20 minutes later from a well-worked move involving R
ichard Horne and Willie Manu.
Danny Tickle added goals to both and with less than a quarter of the final remaining Hull led 12-10. However, Saints then stepped up into a gear Hull could not match to leave Yeaman and his team-mates rueing what might have been.
Lucky pants??? Click here to read John Ledger's hilarious rugby league blog."It hurts like hell," said Yeaman. "It was good to score two tries but I'd swap them for a winners' medal any day.
"With 15 minutes to go I felt we were in with a massive chance but it wasn't to be.
"We spoke at half-time about how Saints had had a couple of decent bounces of the ball and things hadn't gone our way.
"We were only 10 points behind and had the belief that we could go on and win it. There was a massive effort from everyone in the second half."
James Leuluai, who also finished on the losing side, is the only other Hull player to claim two tries at Wembley in 1985 when the Kiwi centre's second try had echoes of Yeaman's opening score.
"I just pinned my ears back and went for it," said Yeaman. "I could see Leon behind me and I know he's no slow coach so I went for it.
"The conditions were ridiculous. The sun was beating down and it was really hard to breathe. I think both teams did really well to play like they did."
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