Halfback Jeff Robson says he struggled to watch Cronulla’s horror first month of the NRL season after helping them to their first win of the year.
Hit hard by injury and suspension the Sharks battled through the first four weeks of the year, scoring only five tries in four defeats, including a 42-4 hammering to Canterbury and a 30-0 thumping from Newcastle.
But with Robson joining Todd Carney in the halves for the Sharks for the first time in round five at Remondis Stadium against the Warriors on Saturday, Cronulla returned to the form that made them a premiership force in 2013, scoring seven tries with winger Nathan Stapleton claiming four in the 37-6 win.
Albeit against a poor Warriors, who dropped the ball almost at will and only completed 59 per cent of their sets.
But the Sharks were good enough to take advantage and with Andrew Fifita putting his contract dramas behind him with a commanding performance up front the Sharks finally notched their first win of 2014 after a forgettable start.
“It was pretty difficult to watch (that first month),” Robson said
“I don’t like watching my footy team play at the best of times, so it was tough.
“Hopefully we can use that win as a stepping stone moving forward.
“No one wants to go 0-5 and we spoke about that before the game.
“We scored a lot of points Toddy was great and Nath Stapleton was great for us too.
“We were nowhere near perfect, but our forwards really stood up which they haven’t done, which has been hard for our backs to score and put on points.”
Interim coach Peter Sharp praised Robson for the calming influence he brought to the Sharks side in particularly to star five-eighth Carney.
“He is a very steadying influence on our side,” Sharp said.
Robson said he was happy to play the steady foil to Carney’s brilliance.
“I just do my job the best that I can and that suits him because he can just sit back and play the footy that he sees,” Robson said.
“He is not worried about organising the team he can just play footy.
“He showed he can do that and put on points as easy as that.”
