Cutters captain highlights weakness after Dabaris defeat

By ROBINSON LEKA
KIMBE Cutters captain Martin Xavier has shed some light on some areas the team need to improve on after they go down 22-14 to Central Dabaris in Port Moresby on Saturday.
Xavier was content with his side’s performance over the weekend but he stressed that a lack of options in kicking and poor ball handling was what had cost them the match.
He said the kicking was an area they needed to brush up on after only managing to convert one goal from three attempts in the game.
“That’s one of the very important things we were talking about during training, to find a permanent kicker for the game,” Xavier said.
“We have been losing close games because of our kicking and we haven’t come up with a permanent kicker who we can rely on.”
Despite losing by eight points, he was happy with the way the team had bounced back in the second half which saw them give away just two points via a penalty.
“Looking at the game, our start was very slow,” Xavier said.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted and as a result, it created opportunities for them to score tries and run away with the game.
“In the first half, we dropped five balls. In the second half, we had too many dropped balls in attack which let our opponents off the hook.“As a result, we came up with the result that we have. I think that is one of the areas that we need to work on in the coming weeks.
“Towards the middle (of the match), I think we came to realise and push a bit harder.
“The boys went in and tried their best to fix some of the areas that we were lacking.”