Warrington's Australian coach Tony Smith was a relieved man after his side scraped past Hull Kingston Rovers 25-24 in their Challenge Cup quarter-final on Saturday.

Smith, who now holds British citizenship having first coached the Great Britain and then England national sides, could only sit and watch as Rovers's Michael Dobson kicked a 78th minute penalty to tie the scores at 24-24.

Warrington's Lee Briers missed a last minute drop-goal and the match went into sudden death extra-time where the stand-off failed with three more drop-goal efforts before finally hitting the target.

"He put his hand up and said: 'Just get me to the 50 and I'll put it over.' He's a confident young man," Smith said of Briers.

"My boys gave him enough shots. He wasn't far off with the others and he eventually got it right."

Australia-born Justin Morgan, Hull KR's coach, said defeat was hard to take for his side, who had built a 22-12 lead.

"It's a tough one," he said. "I know players were out on their feet and to play extra-time might have been prolonging the agony. I suppose golden point is the way to go.

"It's difficult because players' minds are fuzzy at that stage in the game but, because it's cup rugby, you have to have a winner."

There were no such problems in the day's other Cup tie where defending champions St Helens thrashed lower league Gateshead 66-6.

"I'm very pleased," said Saints coach Mick Potter.

"We executed some plays very well. There is always stuff you'd like to improve on but we found the balance where we took something out of the game, but there's something there to improve on."

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