Newcastle Knights forward Daniel Saifiti has described the weekend’s loss to the Gold Coast Titans as bitter sweet after earning praise for the impact he brought to the match playing off the bench.
Coach Nathan Brown gave a special mention to Daniel and his twin brother Jacob in the post match press conference for shifting the momentum of the game.
“Last week against the Panthers Jacob (Saifiti) and I had fairly poor games,” he told Knights TV on Monday morning.
“We came into this game saying we had to prove a point and I think we did.
“Jacob and I played fairly well but didn’t get the win, so it was pretty disappointing.
“Browny (coach Brown) said to us after the game that we should go into every game with that mentality.
“It’s something I’m going to take into games in the future for sure.”
Matching up against the Titans in the middle was a challenge Daniel said he was always determined to tackle head on.
“They are physical and they are on a roll at the moment,” he said.
“Playing Jarryd Hayne was pretty special, being Fijian.
“We didn’t get the win though, so that’s disappointing.”
On Monday morning the team reviewed the Round 24 match to identify what needs to be changed before the team takes on the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday.
“The start to the game was fairly poor and we let in a few soft tries there,” he said.
“They scored 18 points in as many minutes and I think after that, the score ended up six all after that.
“I think if we had muscled up for a few periods, we could have got away with the win but we didn’t.”
He assures the young Knights remain enthusiastic and motivated to perform well in each and every game they take the field.
“Because we are such a young team everyone is still upbeat and so energetic," he said.
“We still go into every game that we can win no matter who we play.”
