Ruben Wiki: Fine-tuning our finishing to complete the jigsaw

I should have had a kava bowl in the stand last weekend because I couldn't relax watching the Warriors against the Cowboys.

My wife was in the West Stand so I started there. I then visited friends in the Lion Red Stand, said hello to the supporters in the South Stand and ended up sitting with the rest of the players in the East Stand before moving back to the West Stand. I've always been a nervous watcher and I certainly couldn't keep still last weekend.

You get a good insight from watching in the stands, though. You can see a lot from up top and what the guys should have done.

The Cowboys loss was another one we let slip away because we had opportunities to win but didn't finish things off. The only ones we can blame are ourselves (although I wouldn't mind saying a few things about the ref but I'm already in enough trouble being suspended for four weeks).

From where I was sitting, we're not that far off and as soon as we fix up a few little things we are going to set the world on fire.

When we make those half breaks, we need to take the right option and we've spent a lot of time on making sure we do that when we get close to the line. We showed in the win over Brisbane what we can do if we give Stacey the room to move. We're getting to the other end of the field pretty easily, it's just our finishing.

One thing that impressed me was the guys' body language. Last year we were called the 20-minute team and the opposition would stay with us for 20 minutes and then watch us buckle. But we're an 80-minute team now and play to the death. Although the table never lies, we could so easily be looking back on the first three weeks with three wins.

I don't think our starts have been that good in the two games we've lost and we need to come out blazing today but South Sydney are certainly not the bunnies of old.

I watched them play my previous team Canberra last weekend and it was full-on. They played right to the end, had smart halves and good finishers.

Their coach, Shaun McCrae, was at Canberra when I was around and he's got a good knowledge of the game and bought well over the summer.

Tony Kemp has made changes for today and it keeps everyone on their toes. He's making everyone aware that we have a big squad and guys can come in if someone's not up to par.

Someone who was up to par last week was Mr Effective, Iafeta Paleaaesina, who came in for me. I was very proud of him and he deserved the players' player award.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY