Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall has apologised to his club’s fans after a horror 58-6 loss to the Sharks.
To make matters worse for his side, Api Koroisau left the field in the second half and didn’t return after injuring his calf.
Koroisau was captured limping in the background after covering in defence when Will Kennedy broke the line.
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The Tigers conceded 10 tries in a shocking defensive display, with Marshall starting his post-match press conference with an apology.
“When you take the field you have to choose the right attitude, and tonight they ran harder and tackled way harder than us and it showed on the scoreboard,” he said.
“We haven’t seen that (attitude) all year, that’s the first time we’ve seen it.”
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The Tigers coach wouldn’t divulge what the message was in the dressing room but said they were “never in the game”.
“When you take to the field you have to choose the right attitude, how hard you want to tackle and how hard you want to run,” he said.
“They ran and tackled harder than us and had way more energy than us.”
Koroisau was coy about his injury in the press conference, stating, “We’ll find out tomorrow with scans”. The hooker was captured with ice on his calf as he watched on from the sidelines.
The Tigers captain was also sin-binned in a controversial call during the first half but Marshall wasn’t willing to give his opinion on it.
“It doesn’t matter now, they scored 56 points. We talked all week about having a defensive attitude and it was nowhere. Sin bin or no sin bin, it didn’t matter,” he said.
“There’s no one in our team that could say they played good.
“It’s the first time we’ve had that attitude all year. Most games we’re in there competing to the death and today we weren’t there.”