They may have fallen just short of victory, but New Zealand Warriors coach Matthew Elliott was pleased with his side’s gallant effort to get back into the game, as they lost to the Sydney Roosters in Auckland.
Trailing 16-0 with 30 minutes left on the clock, it was the Warriors never-say-die attitude that impressed Elliott the most, with a crucial conversion attempt by Shaun Johnson ultimately unsuccessful.
“I’m always disappointed when we don’t win,” he said.
“We’ve got to remind ourselves that we’ve got a team capable of winning every football game we go into.
“The reality of the NRL is that it’s not going to happen every week, so we’re disappointed, but we came up with a decent baseline there as far as application and effort.”
The loss sees the Warriors without a win in their first two games, and Elliott knows that his side will have to improve their attack in coming weeks.
“We had some opportunities in the first half that we didn’t execute very well,” he said.
“It’s a little bit of a structural thing and that comes into my court, but we will gain fluency.”
For the Roosters, it was a maiden NRL victory for coach Trent Robinson, with the play of the team still a work in progress.
“The stuff I want to put in place we’re seeing in bits and pieces,” he said.
“It was a bit more this week than last week. We’ve got a way to go, but we need to get the two points along the way and I thought that was good.”
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