Captain James Tedesco has labelled his side's performance as "embarrassing" as the Sydney Roosters crumbled to a heavy defeat at the hands of the Penrith Panthers on Friday evening.
The loss, which wound up with the Roosters conceding 48 points - just avoiding the dreaded 50-point barrier - sees the Roosters slump to a five and five record from their ten games played.
They will be outside the top eight at the end of the weekend, although marginally so with just six points separating second and 15th spot on the table mid-way through Round 11.
It's the second-straight loss for the Roosters, who fell during Magic Round to the North Queensland Cowboys last weekend, and the game against the Panthers saw an even split of 24 points in each half let in.
Tedesco said the team had been clear in their objectives during the week, but it had lasted just ten minutes before Scott Sorensen burst through for Penrith's first try.
He then labelled the performance as embarrassing, and admitted there was plenty to work on.
"It was a short week. We were clear, we had to get back to working hard for each other. We probably did that for about ten minutes at the start of the game and then that was it," Tedesco said of the performance.
"It was really hard to be captain and serve that up. It's embarrassing. We have a lot to work on."
Coach Trent Robinson, who is under plenty of pressure over decisions of his within the Roosters' side that simply haven't worked - including Joseph Suaalii to centre, decisions around the halves and Brandon Smith at hooker - said it was about effort areas where the tri-colours had let themselves down.
"We got beaten again on a lot of the effort areas," Robinson said at his post-game press conference.
"The start of the game was quite live back and forth, and then we got done on an inside ball. We opened up at the back end of the half. We aren't moving for each other. We aren't in the that kick pressure, kick chases. A lot of the things we started the year with have fallen completely away and we got an incredible lesson tonight."
Tedesco agreed, admitting he and his teammates weren't used to not being there for one another.
"Definitely not used to it. We pride ourselves at the Roosters working hard for each other, but the last few weeks that just hasn't been there.
"So it's hard. Try after try and trying to keep the boys positive behind the posts, but we just aren't resillient enough. A few tries, we just drop our heads and it gets worse and worse. It's pretty hard to swallow that."
Robinson said this week's defensive issues against Penrith were worse than the problems encountered last week against the Cowboys, but ultimately admitted the onus was on him to prepare his team better.
"That [defensive effort] last week was some last plays. Tonight was definitely another issue completely. You can talk about attack and defence, and you can talk about getting team ready to play and ready to compete, and I haven't done that obviously last week and this week, and we got bitten pretty hard tonight," Robinson said.
"That's on me and I've got to make sure I get that right and turn it around pretty quickly."
Robinson said there was still time to turn things around though.
"It's hard going home and looking at that performance [last week] and then backing it up with a worse one," Robinson said when asked if he was worried about his side's recent efforts.
"You are in the middle of a competition, you never get too down because there is always a chance to turn things around. That's the beauty of being in this comp, you always get a chance to turn it around, but we have to do that quickly. We have to find it less so in details, more so in effort, attitude and we have to get connected again."
Tedesco said the Roosters still believe they can be a force in the competition.
"Yeah, we believe it," Tedesco said.
"We aren't proving it at the moment. It's hard, we are doing all the right things, but our performances just aren't up to scratch, particularly the last few weeks.
"There is still a long way to go. We definitely aren't out of it, but we have a lot of improvement to do. It's only a week's wait until we can make up for it."
The Roosters' next chance to turn things around will come against the St George Illawarra Dragons at Kogarah next weekend.
