Canberra Raiders coach Neil Henry admitted his team's stuttering attack was "unacceptable" and "not up to NRL standard" after it turned in its most insipid performance of the season to lose in Auckland yesterday.
The Raiders suffered a 14-6 loss at the hands of an injury-depleted New Zealand Warriors outfit in torrid conditions at Mt Smart Stadium.
The visitors made a shocking 17 errors, completing less than 60 per cent of their sets compared to the Warriors' 80 per cent.
If not for some inspired defence on their line, the Raiders would have lost by much more, after also conceding a string of penalties for repeated ruck infringements.
The Raiders made the most simple skills look difficult, dropping easy balls, floating passes over the sideline and kicking one ball out on the full.
In contrast the Warriors did the little things right in the wet.
The home team made just two handling errors in the opening half and eight less than the Raiders for the game.
Henry said the conditions were no excuse for his team's inability to launch any meaningful attacking raids.
"They weren't even errors in collisions, they were just dropped cold or thrown into touch or whatever," Henry said.
"We invented quite a few ways to give them the ball back.
"Parts of our attack were inept.
"It was not up to NRL standard, I've got no problems saying that.
"I think anyone watching that game would think that as well.
"It was unacceptable and the players know that."
Despite their poor form the Raiders managed to claw within two points of the Warriors midway through the second half when Lincoln Withers scooped up a loose ball and dived over for a try.
But Warriors centre Ryan Shortland scored his team's second try four minutes later, ensuring New Zealand would remain undefeated at home this season.
Henry said if it wasn't for his team's brave defence the Raiders could have suffered an even more embarrassing loss.
"The attitude defensively was great," he said.
"The effort was there and it had to be because otherwise the Warriors had enough possession to run up 50 points against us.
"They didn't and we were still in the game later but I was just disappointed with our error rate."
The Raiders' other key problem was the amount of penalties they gave away in the ruck.
Referee Sean Hampstead constantly called the Raiders out for lying on players too long, holding them down or raking.
While some of the calls appeared harsh, Hampstead was on the money most of the time.
Raiders captain Alan Tongue became so frustrated with the penalty count in the second half that he was heard yelling "this is unbelievable" to Hampstead.
"There was a lot of ill discipline, I wasn't blaming it on the referee at all," Tongue said.
"There was some penalties there that were, granted, to be given, but it was just frustrating at the time."
The Warriors were without a host of first-choice players yesterday, including props Ruben Wiki and Steve Price, winger Manu Vatuvei and utility Jerome Ropati.
"Over the past few years we've seemed to go okay in that sort of weather," stand-in Warriors skipper Michael Luck said.
"It was probably not the most attractive game of football, but we ground out a result which is what we really needed."
The Raiders have now lost two of their past three games heading into Saturday's clash with the Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium. Sydney are coming off the bye.
