Ryan Hoffman admits the body is feeling a bit sore after another full shift just four days after State of Origin.
Hoffman played all 80 minutes in the Warriors’ 24-20 win over Newcastle in Auckland on Saturday, after having been on the field throughout NSW’s one-point defeat in Sydney.
But there are no complaints from the 31-year-old former Melbourne Storm back-rower, who has represented his state 12 times.
“It’s what you do,” he said.
“You’ve got a responsibility to your club to back up. They’re the blokes that help you get those rep jumpers in the first place.”
Hoffman said he carried no hangover from the Origin defeat into the Newcastle match – he couldn’t afford to.
“Your teammates watch the game but they don’t really care what happened on Wednesday night,” he said.
“They need you to turn up and do your job on Sunday.”
The Warriors have now strung together three wins in a row, each one featuring a tight finish.
Hoffman said the victory over the Knights should have been more clinical.
“We’ll never get sick of winning,” he said.
“It doesn’t really bother us if we win by one point or by 100 as long as we get those wins.
“But I think, as a team, for us to go forward, we need to be a bit cleaner about how we finish it.”
GTW
Guest
Across the board it seemed that the State of Origin quality players took it upon themselves to have really good games for their clubs. One would forgive them a little if they were quiet, but that wasn't the case. I suppose it does support the idea that even though it's a really inconvenient time of year for clubs with the great players playing for them, it's better to have the benefit of those players than not at all. Have any of the teams, so called "badly" effected by losing Origin players, lost in the last two rounds?