SLICK ROOS TERS GIVE KNIGHTS A WAKE- UP CALL
THE honeymoon is well and truly over for Mitchell Pearce and the Newcastle Knights after being handed a 38- 8 lesson by the Sydney Roosters to fall to their first loss of the NRL season.
The Knights entered Allianz Stadium with their tails up following two straight wins to start 2018, but Pearce’s former side were quick to send the visitors back up the F3 with a comprehensive defeat.
Knights coach Nathan Brown admitted anticipating some poor results against some of the better teams in the competition, but lamented his men being beaten on effort.
“It’s more disappointing as far as little effort areas, they were better than us in that area,” Brown said.
“We’ve got to be openminded that we’re going to come into some ( difficult) contests. We’d like to have done a lot better today. I thought physically at times we handled them really well.
“We’ve still got some players that have come through who are used to losing, who don’t play like winners consistently enough.
“They’ve got to learn to win and with the players we’ve bought from good clubs, that’ll happen over time.”
Brown also said the Roosters showed why they are considered premiership favourites in a highly- anticipated game due to the context surrounding Pearce’s exit from the club in favour of Cooper Cronk.
“They handled it well, you could tell by the score,” Brown said.
“There was obviously a lot of pressure on the Roosters with what they’ve brought in.”