Warriors coach Andrew Webster says the 60-point drubbing at the hands of the Titans at the weekend was the lowest point of his coaching career.
The record defeat to the bottom-placed side has garnered fierce criticism, with pundits calling the performance “disgraceful” and “embarrassing”.
Webster said it had been a tough couple of days in the wake of the thrashing.
“I think I’d be in the wrong game if I didn’t care. I think every player cares, every staff member. That was hard to watch, hard to take, considering we didn’t see it coming off the back of training really well. I thought we were hitting form. We certainly weren’t physical on the weekend, and tackling was poor, it was hard to see.”
Webster said he could not pinpoint a reason for the woeful performance.
“We looked flat and slow and lethargic, we’re not hiding behind it so obviously everyone saw it. Too many missed tackles, line breaks for tries, stuff that we gave to them.”
There were some brutally honest conversations during the review.
“We face the music fast. We wanted to get straight into it the next morning before we flew home, watch it and move on to what each individual and each team member has to do.
“If we’re looking always in the past, we’re not going to gain any confidence and get excited about this week, but that little burning feeling that everyone’s got right now, to prove each other right, and prove all our fans and everyone that you know that’s not us.”
The Warriors have been dealt a further blow, with Shaun johnson set to be sidelined for up to four weeks with an achilles injury.
“We took our time with him, and he’s not come back the way he wanted. And you could see the Shaun couldn’t do what he needed to do on the weekend. So we’ve made the decision, and we’re all on board with it, I’m just going to give him whatever the right amount of time is to get him back and get him in good shape.”
The Warriors return to Auckland this weekend to take on the Broncos.
The match was sold out prior to the weekend’s crushing loss, so whether the fans have abandoned the bandwagon remains to be seen.
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