Brisbane Test centre Kotoni Staggs said he was “devastated” and “shattered” at both his own performance and that of the Broncos in the World Club Challenge.
However, Staggs said the loss to Hull KR wasn’t necessarily a wake-up call for the Broncos ahead of their premiership defence, which starts against Penrith on March 6 at Suncorp Stadium.
“I think that’s every year, whether we’re a premiership team or at the bottom - everyone loves to beat the Broncos and that’s just how it is,” Staggs said.
“It’s good being like that. They want to come at us. It’s no different to the years I’ve been at the club - they’re all going to come for us.
“(But) we are the premiers and they’re going to be coming for us because we’ve got that trophy. We’ve got to start from scratch and go again.“
The Australia and Tonga international had a night to forget in the WCC against Super League premiers Hull KR, who triumphed 30-24 against the Broncos.
Staggs fumbled after three minutes and then knocked on at dummy half in the 20th minute, immediately before Joe Burgess’ touchdown that gave Hull KR an 18-0 lead in a match they went on to win 30-24 at MKM Stadium.
But not before Staggs scored a try during a 20-point blitz in the second half by the Broncos.
“I’m a bit shattered in myself,” Staggs said. “It wasn’t the way I wanted to start the game. It was a slow start from myself, but I fixed it up in the second half and I got a bit more ball.
Kotoni Staggs Try
“I’m devastated not to get the win. Our performance wasn’t where it needed to be.
"I had a couple of errors in the first half which put pressure on our line and we had to defend it and they scored a try off the back of it. I need to be better as an individual but I think across the park we can be better as well.”
Like his coach Michael Maguire and several team-mates, Staggs said Brisbane’s run as rugby league’s comeback kings had come to an end and it was an identity they had to bury.
“We don’t like to be trying to come back at the end of games. Hopefully we’d be able to put them away early in the game.
“I just think … we shouldn’t have been chasing there. We were down a try at the back end but if we could have completed a few more sets in the first half and played our game, we’d have obviously had a better crack at winning that game.
“All the effort was there with our players. We kept going until the hooter and we never gave up. That’s a thing we do at this club. We never give up and we play the 80 minutes out.
"Obviously it’s a tough pill to take but we’ll look at that game and we’ll get better from it."
Staggs has now been to the UK with Tonga, Australia and Brisbane in the space of three and a half years.
“The atmosphere was good … and we love playing in that type of atmosphere. It was different and we enjoyed it," he said.
Match: Broncos v Panthers
Round 1 -
home Team
Broncos
away Team
Panthers
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
