After the nib Newcastle Knights touched down at Newcastle airport on Sunday, young forward Luke Yates reflected on their 24-12 loss to the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville on the weekend.
“A disappointing result,” said Yates.
“Again we had too many errors and had to defend too much before we blew out for that second half.”
Up 12-10 at halftime, the 21-year-old was pleased with the effort in the first half before it started to unravel in the last 40 minutes.
“At the back end with Mitch (Barnett) getting injured, having to shuffle around our team just proved a bit too much for us,” explained Yates.
“Definitely some positive things to come out of the game but a pretty disappointing result.”
The Cowboys encounter was a tough challenge for the young forward who played his biggest minutes so far this season and had a record-high 41 tackles for the match which earned him Players’ Player for Round 8.
“I am obviously happy with that but I prefer to get a better result,” commented Yates.
“It was tough out there, the heat is definitely a factor.
“I think the Cowboys are a bit more acclimatised to it than us.”
Switching his focus to Round 9, Yates is confident the Knights can notch up their second win for the season this weekend.
The red and blue play the Gold Coast Titans, which Newcastle defeated 34-26 in Round 2.
“Good opportunity for us to get another two points,” Yates said.
“We beat them last time so I think we’re going up there pretty confident to do the same job again up at the Gold Coast.”
The Knights travel to the Gold Coast on Friday for the clash at Cbus Super Stadium this Saturday, kick-off is at 3pm.
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