Ricky Stuart described Jack Wighton as one of the competition's best players despite the Canberra fullback nearly costing his side the game in their spiteful 24-20 win over Cronulla at Remondis Stadium on Sunday.
Wighton had a hand in nearly every big play of the match.
He scored two tries, set up Jordan Rapana for another, came up with errors that led to a Cronulla try and penalty goal, got sin-binned along with the Sharks' Sosaia Feki for throwing a punch in a brawl and then returned to the field to come-up with a game-saving tackle on Mitch Brown.
"Great players are going to get pressured, they're going to be niggled, he's a kid who hasn't played a lot of first grade," Stuart said of
"That was a great education out there for him tonight.
"The message sent down to him, as he was going back out (from his sin-binning) was `go out and win the game for us'.
"And he did that with that tackle in that far left corner."
For Cronulla, it was a disappointing result for what was supposed to be a fresh start after their 2014 season was ruined by the ASADA investigation into their 2012 supplements program.
The match was coach Shane Flanagan's first back in charge following his year-long suspension for his part in the drugs saga while captain Paul Gallen was also returning from an ASADA ban.
Five-eighth Ben Barba, in his first game in Cronulla colours since making an off-season move from Brisbane, was poor, coming up with errors that led to Wighton's two tries and kicking out on the full on another occasion.
Flanagan lamented his side's lack of composure and promised they were a better side than their display against the Raiders.
"It was poor discipline - kicking out (on the full) not kicking out (when trying to find touch from a penalty), not completing sets," he said.
"Even in that last set of the game, if we catch that ball we're a chance of winning the footy game.
"We didn't deserve it but we had an opportunity."
