Apr 7th, 2018

Apr 7th, 2018

Wayne Bennett admits his Brisbane side have been sapped of confidence as fresh questions arose over halves pairing Anthony Milford and Kodi Nikorima following Saturday's 15-10 NRL defeat to Newcastle.

The Broncos slumped to their second straight loss as their misfiring playmakers failed to capitalise on a glut of opportunities at McDonald Jones Stadium.

Worringly, after five rounds, Milford and Nikorima have not registered a single try assist between them.

And while Bennett reiterated his support for the pair and said they were the best options the club had, questions are beginning to pile about their ability to guide the side to this year's finals.

The Broncos created plenty of chances against the Knights - boasting a 79 per cent completion rate, having 29 tackles inside the opposition 20m zone and forcing seven drop outs.

But they still couldn't land the killer blow.

Their first try came off the back of a Shaun Kenny-Dowall howler, when the Knights winger made a mess of a kick restart.

The other came from a piece of Milford magic in what was a rocks-and-diamonds performance from the Broncos No.6.

The Broncos have scored an average of two tries per game this year and Bennett admitted their self-belief had dissipated.

"We're just lacking a little bit of confidence right now," Bennett said.

"Tonight was a big step forward for us.

"We've been clunky, we haven't been able to consistently put it together. I thought tonight was a step in the right direction.

"We've got to play ourselves back into form, we've played ourselves out of it."

Brisbane captain Darius Boyd said their energy was sapped after spending long amounts of time defending their own line in the first 40 minutes.

"If you watch that first half, they rolled down the field and were kicking us into 10 metres off our tryline, we were trying to bring it off our tryline constantly," Boyd said.

"To their credit they were quite tight in their defence and we couldn't get a lot of yards.

"While the completions were high and the drop outs were good, the field position wasn't that great and we used a lot of energy."

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