Press conference: Jamie Buhrer on Round 4
nib Newcastle Knights co-captain Jamie Buhrer said playing a team like the Sydney Roosters is always going to be a tough test on their home turf, but he remains disappointed by the way his side acquitted themselves.
“It’s not the result we were after, but against the Roosters who have been one of the most consistent teams of the competition for a long time now, we obviously fell well short,” he said.
“They scored some well executed tries off some kicks and they probably just beat us in the effort areas.
“We need to be better in that area and we should have showed a bit more intent to get there.”
Looking at the stats for Sunday, the Knights had more than half of possession and beat the Roosters when it came to completion rate, at a still poor 68 per cent.
Buhrer is adamant the loss is not the end of the world and there’s some areas they can easily fix up.
“It is Round 3 so it’s not all doom and gloom after a loss like that,” Buhrer maintained.
“There’s certainly things we’ve got to work on, but we have our feet squarely on the ground and we know we’ve got some work ahead of us.
“Obviously you want to win every game, so a result like that against a quality opposition, there’s going to be a lot of things that we can take from the game that we can work on.”
The 28-year-old admits he’ll be keen to get everything ironed out before their encounter against the St George Illawarra Dragon on Sunday, who are sitting at the top of the ladder.
“The Dragons are riding high.
“They’ve got a pretty formidable forward pack so we’ll have to try and contain them.
“They’ve also got some great outside backs, similar to the Roosters, they get their sets off to a good start and it will be important that we get a handle on their outside backs to minimise their impact.
“I think it’s fair to say they’ve been the most consistent team in the competition and in all aspects, as a team they have been putting in some great performances.
“We’re confident in what we’re able to do, we’ve got a few things to work on but we’ve got the capability to go down there and do a job.”
