nib Newcastle Knights hooker Danny Levi believes a controversial try by former team mate Akuila Uate hurt the team in their Round 14 loss to the Manly Sea Eagles.
“It was unfortunate... we would have liked it to go upstairs but we can’t control that and we’ve just got to move on from it,” the dummy-half said.
“Getting calls like that, we’ve got to handle it better and move forward.”
But while the effort was there, Levi feels there should have been better execution.
“We should have been a bit smarter in some parts of the game, unfortunately we went down but can’t fault the boys for their effort,” Levi said.
“Hopefully we can get better in the bye week, we don’t want to waste a week and there is a lot of improvement we can do.
“If we minimise those errors and silly decisions, we should be right.”
The 21-year-old, who recorded 33 tackles in 64 minutes, admits the soggy conditions were difficult to work in.
“It was like playing under 12s back home, back at Wellington,” Levi laughed.
“It was wet, cold and miserable.
“I thought I would have been alright but I’m adapted to the weather over here and I was freezing out there so hopefully we can be a bit better if we get a couple more games like that.”
With a bye this week, Levi has welcomed in the break.
“It has come a good time, the boys have a few niggles so it’s good to have a week off and get everyone right but we’re not going to ease up,” Levi explained.
“We still want to get a lot of improvement out of this week even though we don’t have a game and hit the ground running next week.”
Meanwhile the hooker admits he’s trying to continuously improve his game with the World Cup in mind.
“I have got a lot of areas to work on including defence, my attack and fitness but I feel like I’m slowly doing that with all areas of my game,” Levi commented.
“There is a lot of quality hookers for New Zealand so I definitely have to lift my game.
“It is definitely something I am looking at so hopefully at the end of the year I’ll put my name forward and I’ll get a spot.”
