Nicho Hynes, Craig Fitzgibbon, Round 15, Cronulla Sharks, defeat, sideline conversion, State of Origin

The Cronulla Sharks coach has avoided blaming his side’s 30-28 loss to the Dolphins on halfback Nicho Hynes, who missed the sideline conversion at full time to send the game into extra time.

Wayne Bennett’s side took the lead early in the first half thanks to four tries in the opening 24 minutes, only for Fitzgibbon’s side to fight back impressively to take the lead after 52 minutes .

A piece of Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow magic broke down the Sharks defense and almost certainly looked to give the Dolphins both points, only for a late Sione Katoa to try to give Nicho Hynes a chance to send the game into extra time.

MORE NRL NEWS

EXPANSION: Twist in 18th team race as Jets battle Bears to pair with new favorite

HOOPS: the puppeteer behind the Tigers teenage circus; Roosters’ $800,000 Smith shock

POWER RANKINGS: Dogs win hard while dragons breathe fire; no end for the Tigers

‘DELIVERY HIS WORD’: How Flanno orchestrated Hunt’s backflip

Hynes, who needed a big game to keep his Origin hopes alive, duly missed the touchline, but Fitzgibbon was quick to defend his half-back in his post-match press conference .

“It’s unfair to attribute the defeat to a scorer when we gave up 22 points in the first half,” Fitzgibbon said.

“The answers (to the defeat) lie in our defensive line in the first half.”

Fitzgibbon said there were many factors behind his team’s slow start, including a five-day turnaround following his side’s bruising Round 14 victory over the Brisbane Broncos and their loss to the Dolphins, but failed to make excuses for their performance.

Fitzgibbon on Hynes’ cruel late failure | 05:11

“There is no excuse (for the slow start). There are many reasons (for this),” he said.

“We worked hard to keep anything from leaking out. No excuses, just show up, set your energy and fire it.

“Unfortunately we didn’t manage to do it at first and then we launched it, but it was too late.

“(There was) clearly a little hangover at the start. We just looked numb on defense. Then we got to a point where it looked horrible, and then we did something about it.

“I was really happy with the second half and we only had one moment with the Hammer. Game over.”

Hammer LIGHTS the burners for a miracle test! | 00:45

Fitzgibbon believes the Dolphins, who came into this clash fresh from last week, were more energetic than Cronulla, particularly in the early stages of the game.

“You could tell they had come to play. We didn’t have enough energy to achieve it,” he said.

In his mind, the early points the Sharks conceded were only half the problem of his team’s slow start.

“Taking away the points and the energy cost at the start of the match was too much to overcome,” Fitzgibbon said.

Cronulla are given a bye on Matchday 16, with their manager admitting his team “could rest a bit” but insisted they had “work to do”.