St George Illawarra Dragons lock Jack de Belin believes the team needs to remain focused and positive following the 25-12 loss to Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium, Olympic Park on Sunday.
The NSW Country Origin played his 100th first-grade fixture in the encounter but could not celebrate with a victory despite playing the entire game in the forward-pack.
De Belin acknowledges that the opposition were the better team on the day but notes they were not as far ahead of the pace as the score line indicates.
“We approached the game being really positive especially after the last couple of results not going our way which has brought on some criticism,” said de Belin.
“We can only stay positive as the effort is there but we need to hang tough in those periods of the game where we were down.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted and disappointing really to go down that way.
“The effort was there and we ripped in but we couldn’t put the points on the board.
“I felt like we were on top of them in most instances except just before halftime where they got a couple of tries on us.
“I don’t feel like the score line was a real reflection of the game as there were phases when we were on top of them and brought strong defence and completing our sets.
“Credit to the Tigers though as they held on very strongly and you need to take your hat off to them.
“We threw a lot of ball at them and hung strong while it shows our execution needs to be better.”
