An emotional Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui has taken full responsibility for his side’s defeat, including the admission that he wasn’t sure of the rules when mishandling a pivotal kick-off.
“Just dumb,” coach Justin Holbrook said after chronicling a series of blunders during their embarrassing collapse against arch-rivals Brisbane.
The decision to go for a short kick-off while still up by 14 points was particularly eyebrow-raising, and one that Fa’asuamaleaui took the blame for.
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“I stuffed up. Jamayne wanted to go long, and I thought there was an opportunity to go short,” he told reporters.
“I didn’t understand the rule of it going over the 10 and where to grab it, and then missed the tackle. I put my hand up for that, I let the boys down and failed them.”
Fa’asuamaleaui said he didn’t realise the ball could be grabbed as soon as it had travelled 10 metres, even if it was still in the air – saying he thought he needed to let the ball bounce before picking it up.
Instead, Brisbane pounced and had its second try in as many minutes.
“I didn’t understand the rule,” he admitted.
“Before you know it, they’re under the posts. I put my hand up for that, it’s unfair on the boys, I let them down.”
The skipper may be being slightly harsh on himself, given his Herculean effort, running for over 200 metres in the first half alone, but it’s little consolation after another big lead thrown away.
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“You can always have a good first half, but you’ve got to back it up in the second half.
“In games like that when all the boys are looking for their leaders, you need to step up and myself especially, and our leadership crew, we didn’t step up tonight,” he said of their second-half performance.
“It’s a game we could have won, and obviously we let it slip.”
His coach agreed, and was baffled as to how yet another big lead evaporated.
“We were in a great position tonight to win the game, we were in a terrific spot,” Holbrook said.
“We just found a way to throw it away, which is hard to take.”