Benji Marshall issued a public apology to Wests Tigers fans and admitted his team didn’t have a single decent player after the wooden spoon favourites crashed to their biggest loss of the year against a rampant Sharks.
The Tigers, who were the only team to beat the Sharks in Cronulla’s first 10 matches of the season, were on the end of a reversal – with interest – as Craig Fitzgibbon’s side piled on 10 tries in a 58-6 thumping at PointsBet Stadium on Friday night.
It obliterated the Sharks’ club record win over the Tigers in 2021 (30 points).
On a night when skipper Api Koroisau limped off with a calf injury and was the latest Tigers player to be sin-binned, Marshall launched into his players after their meek surrender, which included 34 unanswered points in the second half.
“I’ve just got to apologise to our fans,” Marshall said. “When you take the field, you’ve got to have the right attitude. And tonight they ran harder and tackled way harder than us. It showed on the scoreboard.
“We haven’t seen that all year. It’s the first time we’ve seen it. This is the first time we’ve had that attitude all year. Most games we’re in there competing until the death, and today we weren’t there.
“There’s no one in our team that can probably say they played good.”
Cronulla ran in 10 tries on Friday night to get their season back on track in emphatic style.Credit: Getty Images
The Tigers are hurtling towards a third straight wooden spoon and will be outright last if the Eels can beat the Titans on Saturday. This performance was a far cry from their early-season thumping over the Sharks at Leichhardt Oval, which raised hopes of a Tigers revival under Marshall.
Sharks star Ronaldo Mulitalo scored his first career hat-trick, wing partner Sione Katoa grabbed a double, Braydon Trindall bagged 22 individual points and only the clock stopped the Sharks from going beyond 10 tries.
It was an emphatic response to five losses in their last six matches and a week in which talisman Nicho Hynes went down with a serious foot and ankle injury which will keep him out until the eve of the finals.
“It was quite seamless as we prepared for it in the pre-season with a number of guys in different roles,” Fitzgibbon said. “It was really good to get everyone come into a role and do their job.
“We were ready for anything tonight. There’s been a lot of stuff in the last couple of weeks to like, but gee we’ve made it hard for ourselves. So, it was nice to not make it so hard.”
Fitzgibbon confirmed Jesse Colquhoun, playing his first NRL game this year after a serious foot injury in the trials, suffered a suspected ACL injury.
Sharks forward Jesse Colquhoun suffered a suspected ACL injury.Credit: Getty Images
Koroisau will be sent for scans on a calf problem on Saturday, having been sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul in the first half with the Sharks holding a 12-6 lead.
“We talked all week about having a defensive attitude, and it was nowhere,” Marshall said. “Sin-bin or no sin-bin, it didn’t matter.”
Asked what he said to his players, Marshall said: “What’s said in there, stays in there.”