Rugby League: Knights leave trauma of Dragons defeat behind

By PETER JESSUP

Newcastle coach Michael Hagan shows no signs of desperation despite losing the world's best player, Andrew Johns, to injury and his team slumping to the second-worst defeat in the club's history.

Hagan has had little time to dig the Knights out of the hole of their 48-2 defeat at the hands of the Dragons.

Monday was rehab, on Tuesday they had a weights session, analysed the video and had one training run. On Wednesday the players had an early 2 1/2-hour bus trip to Sydney and then attended an NRL coaching clinic. On Thursday most flew to Auckland.

Hagan and hooker Danny Buderus had State of Origin duties that kept them in Sydney until yesterday and the full squad trained at Ericsson late yesterday afternoon.

Hagan said confidence had obviously been a problem against the Dragons and acknowledged the Johns factor.

"The first week was always going to be the worst, getting over that sort of trauma, but I didn't expect it would be that difficult," he said.

The magnitude of last week's loss didn't worry him, Hagan said.

"They got some soft tries on the back of kicks and were 20 points up at halftime. Then they got 18 points in the last 20 minutes when the game was gone from us.

"It doesn't matter what the score was, you just have to get ready for the next game."

There is still some doubt over which 17 will take the field today.

Timana Tahu had a hamstring strain and Matt Parsons suffered concussion last weekend, but both will play if able.

Some doubt still remained over replacement captain Ben Kennedy who has hand and rib injuries, but he is a player who goes on regardless so can be expected to lead.

The Knights gain some experience with Robbie O'Davis returning at fullback.

Hagan said the return of regulars Tahu and O'Davis and interchange player Clint Newton from injury, plus the debut of Steve Witt at five-eighth, should inject some enthusiasm into the side.

The Knights' 12-2 record over the Warriors was also some comfort, he agreed.

The score between the sides is 7-1 at Ericsson. They played once last year, the Warriors losing at Newcastle to a team without Andrew Johns.

"It's one of those unusual things in the game,"said Hagan. "There's certain teams seem to play well against others.

"Home and away we've played well against the Warriors, so their crowd won't worry us."

Witt, 22, is a Queenslander who was in the Eels' development programme, bought by the Knights as injury cover.

Johns had been working with him before his injury, Hagan said, and now they had to give him a chance to get comfortable and build combinations, not least with halfback Kurt Gidley.

Hagan said the club had to live with the punters' discussion that suggested their finals chances were gone when Johns went down the players' tunnel on the medicab.

"Fair enough," he said of people thinking that. "We just have to hope that's not the case and work to make sure it's not."

They were without Johns but made the playoffs at the end of the last year, he said.

Momentum was important and he expected both sides to get up for today's game.

"We need to get back to playing well. The Warriors looked like they got some confidence back last week."

Hagan expressed some admiration for the Warriors' style.

"They are one of the most skilful teams and I enjoy watching them. They play the game the way it's meant to be played. They've got a lot of support from the fans because of it."

The Warriors have dropped Vinnie Anderson from their bench as he has not recovered from concussion. The replacement is Wairangi Koopu.

Both Anderson and Epalahame Lauaki, who was ruled out earlier with a hamstring strain, are expected to be cleared to return against the Bulldogs in Wellington next Friday night.

* Canberra have received a second breach notice over Clinton Schifcofske's kicking, the fullback taking 99s to convert his own 10th-minute try against Parramatta last week, an A$2000 ($2315) offence.

Brisbane's Michael De Vere was the only other player to miss the 90s mark, but the Broncos were not charged because an extended warning being issued by referee Steve Clark to Storm players delayed De Vere.

NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said a review of the four rounds so far showed clubs were making a genuine effort to take quicker goal kicks and the result was more football.

* WARRIORS vs KNIGHTS Ericsson Stadium, tonight 7.30 Referee: Steve Lyons.