Nathan Brown forces Knights players to sit through viewing of heavy loss to Rabbitohs

KNIGHTS players could be forgiven for wanting to forget their train wreck against the Rabbitohs — but coach Nathan Brown had other ideas.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 12: The Knights look dejected after a Rabbitohs try during the round two NRL match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Newcastle Knights at ANZ Stadium on March 12, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

IT was the embarrassing horror movie featuring a rampant Rabbitohs side that left Newcastle Knights players squirming in their seats with nowhere to hide.

Newcastle coach Nathan Brown forced his young side on Monday to sit through an edited re-run of Saturday’s train wreck against Souths to ram home just how far they are off the pace after two rounds of the competition.

Backrower Robbie Rochow described the footage as “confronting” with young backrower Jacob Saifiti suggesting their performance in the 48-6 defeat was “pretty ugly”.

“It’s tough. It’s not good losing like that,” Saifiti said.

“I didn’t think we were that bad but looking back on it, we were all over the shop.”

Knights players look dejected after a Rabbitohs try at ANZ Stadium.

In an honest self-appraisal, Rochow said what he and his teammates dished up against Souths simply wasn’t good enough.

“There is some defensive principles we didn’t live by on the weekend,” he said.

“We had to front that this morning. The footage doesn’t lie.

“You can see where you should have worked harder or you should have got your body in front.”

Asked how the boots-n-all video session affected the team, Rochow said: “It might be a little bit confronting for some and it was for some of us.

“I think individually, my performance wasn’t good enough and I knew that after the first half.

“I hold myself to a higher standard than that and I saw that in the footage this morning.”

Robbie Rochow said the Knights had been stung by losses to the Titans and Rabbitohs.

Rochow admitted the team had been stung by the magnitude of the losses to the Titans and Souths in the opening two rounds.

“We are a team and no matter what happens, when you have two losses like that to start the season, everyone is feeling a bit like that,” he said.

“Hopefully for the younger boys, it’s still a good feeling to be playing NRL but we have to stick to our principles a lot better than we did in the first two rounds.

“Once we do, we might get a lot more enjoyment out of games rather than feeling like we have the last two weeks.”

Rochow is convinced the key to a revival against the Canberra Raiders on Saturday in their first game at Hunter Stadium is more effort and commitment. He dismissed inexperienced as an excuse.

“You can say we are young and inexperienced or whatever you want to say but at the end of the day, we know how we have trained for three months and we know our defensive principles,” he said.

“If you don’t stick to them, it doesn’t matter what your inexperience level is or how old you are. It’s just a matter of effort and will to do it on the day.”

Originally published as Nathan Brown forces Knights players to sit through viewing of heavy loss to Rabbitohs