A prickly Souths coach Wayne Bennett was annoyed at a question about the wooden spoon after his side slumped to last on the table after their gutsy 14-12 loss to the Sharks.
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Their latest loss combined with the Titans win over the Warriors ensured Souths will be anchored to the bottom of the ladder with six rounds remaining.
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“I knew someone would ask that question, I’m not answering that,” Bennett said.
Souths skipper Jack Wighton and Bennett wouldn’t be drawn on discussing his sin bin for a shoulder charge.
“I can’t comment on that, I’ll leave it to the officials and see how it plays out,” Wighton said.
“I’m in Jack’s boat,” Bennett added.
Bennett was also pressed on a contentious try to Blayke Brailey, which proved crucial.
“Well again, we talk about the referees, we get in a fair bit of trouble here, so why don’t you ring the referees up and find out what they think about it all?” Bennett said.
“It’ll be a pleasure. I look forward to it. I look forward to your comments.”
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Despite the loss Bennett was proud of his team for pushing a top eight side all the way despite their growing casualty ward.
“It was high, they couldn’t give much more than they gave,” Bennett said of his side’s brave and gutsy display.
“That was there for everybody to see, so I don’t see much point in my commenting on it,” Bennett said.
Wighton binned for shoulder charge! | 00:35
“It was there for everybody to see their performance and I can’t add much to that. It’s we all have different interpretations of what happens, what doesn’t happen, so I think it was said it was a very gutsy performance by us.”
Souths lost another player in Tevita Tatola to a shoulder injury in the act of scoring the final try of the night.
“Dislocated his shoulder,” Bennett said of the injury.
“Just add it to the list and move on.”
“I’d be happy to make the top 8!” | 06:21
Bennett was pressed Lewis Dodd’s first performance in the No.7 jersey, even though Souths had virtually no good ball.
“We only had two sets, one just on half-time in there half and one on full time, so the rest of the time we were in the back of the field and went pretty hard to come out, but he didn’t let anybody down,” Bennett said.
Bennett was at his best when asked to talk about Souths debutant Ashton Ward.
“Oh, not much,” Bennett said.
“Well Allan Langer played at 72, so he’s one kilogram heavier than him.”
