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Parramatta Eels Head Coach Brad Arthur says soft tries and simple errors hurt his side in their 32-18 loss to the Sydney Roosters in round three of the NRL Telstra Premiership
Blake Ferguson was the first to cross for a try in the 5th minute against his old team, but the game quickly turned scrappy, riddled with errors and missed tackled from both teams.
The Eels went into the sheds at half time down 8-6.
They once again took the lead in the 48th minute on the back of winger Maika Sivo’s first NRL try.
The lead yo-yoed between the teams, with Sivo scoring a second try for the Eels and Mitchell Aubusson for the roosters.
Leading 18-16 with 20 minutes to go, the Eels crumbled under pressure after back-to-back defensive sets on their own try line.
“The tries were soft in the second half, we came here tonight looking for an opportunity and we gave ourselves a real good opportunity,” Arthur said.
“We can say that we turned over some cheap possession at times and didn’t quite get the detail right with some silly errors, but at the end of the day if we want to mix in with the really good teams we have to be harder with our defence on the try line,” he said.
"We can't allow soft tries at the try line. We can say it's a weight of possession, but at the end of the day, some of the tries they scored weren't good enough."
The Roosters crossed another three times before full time, winning 32-18.
But Arthur believes his side can take plenty of positives from their performance.
“The pleasing thing for me is that the attitude is great; there is plenty of belief because they believed they could get the job done, but under pressure we allowed some soft tries” Arthur said.
“There were a few good lessons we can learn from tonight and moving forward into next week, we actually learn from it and improve.”
“I would like to think our boys could walk away from here knowing that under pressure, if we can improve a couple of areas of our game, those simple areas and just having a bit more resolve on the try line, we can win plenty of games of football,” he said.
Match Highlights: Eels v Roosters
