Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has implored his side to improve defensively after leaking 38 points against the Cronulla Sharks during a high-scoring Magic Round loss.
In a game which saw 68 points, the Roosters came up short after themselves scoring plenty of points through their last three starts.
The Sharks' win, which was locked in with a late Thomas Hazleton try, means they remain top of the table, while the Roosters, for all their good form in recent weeks, continue to stay around the edge of the top eight.
Robinson said that while 68 points in the game as a whole was a good thing for Magic Round, it simply wasn't good enough from his side who missed far too many tackles, winding up with 33 for the contest to go with nine errors.
"68 points in a game. It's great for Magic Round, not so great for us," Robinson said during his post-game press conference.
"Anytime you leak 38 points, you're not going to win a game. Sort of a mix in there. I really like some of the stuff we are doing, and then we just need to get harder in some of the areas there like getting out of our own end.
"There was lots of errors and lots of missed tackles today. Just lots of falling off the play which cost us a lot.
"We should be better than that. You shouldn't ever leak 38 points. It was really disapointing. Our game at the moment, you can't offer opportunities coming out of you own end. That's exactly what we did."
Captain James Tedesco admitted fatigue from errors and a heavy ground played a part in he and his teammates struggling to contain a Sharks' offence that was free-flowing from start to finish.
"It was a pretty fast game. The Sharks play upbeat and so do we, so it was a free-flowing game, but as Robbo said, we killed ourselves with errors and ended up doing a lot of defending. The ground was pretty heavy out there as well so guys were probably feeling it towards the end," Tedesco said.
The Roosters take on the Canberra Raiders next weekend.