Dane Gagai knows the nib Newcastle Knights have what it takes to start winning matches, but silly mistakes have cost them in crucial parts of the game.
The 26-year-old centre put in a standout performance in the 22-12 loss to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs on Friday.
“We made errors in the first half, we gave away a few penalties and made it easy for them to get out of their own half,” Gagai explained.
“The good teams don’t do that.
“When they are on the top of the competition, they’re good at building pressure and we just didn’t do that, too many errors but I can’t fault the effort from the boys.
“We all put in for each other and we all know we’re going to work hard for each other, it’s just about getting the game right.”
While the bunker disallowed a number of tries from the Knights, Gagai admitted it came down to execution.
“The boys put themselves in good positions to be there, Sione (Mata’utia) dropped the ball over the line but he fought like all hell to get to that ball which was a tremendous effort,” Gagai commented.
“It was those executional things which cost us in the end.
“We are all still positive, we know what we can do, it’s about backing that up and being better for next week.
“I think we’ve matched it with a few of the best but at the end of the day we have got to focus on ourselves and that’s completing and finishing off better.”
The Knights will meet the Sydney Roosters in Round 7, again on home turf this Friday.
