Brian Smith paid tribute to the performances of his lesser lights after watching his Sydney Roosters grind down Newcastle 24-6 in Sunday's NRL clash at Allianz Stadium.
The Roosters dominated throughout against an injury-hit Knights side, who were without Danny Buderus and skipper Kurt Gidley, with NSW halfback Mitchell Pearce, who scored one of his side's four tries, and newly re-signed veteran Anthony Minichiello in fine form.
However, Smith credited the victory to his giant forward pack and singled out Mose Masoe for special praise as his side bounced back from their gut-wrenching loss to St George Illawarra on Anzac Day to climb into the top eight.
"I've never seen Mose have a game like he did today, he was our catalyst," Smith said.
"We are working hard to play grinding footy and reduce errors and that was largely on the back of our lesser lights.
"Boyd Cordner, Mose Masoe, Lami Tasi and Tinirau Arona all dominated and if they get the taste for that and keep doing it I will be very happy.
"Our big boys won the game for us."
Pearce continued his fine form leading into the State of Origin opener on May 23, and Smith said the 23-year-old was currently one of the best players in the game.
"As the game wore on he got better and better, he made three brilliant kicks, one went 70 metres," he said.
"It went dead and that was so Aku (Uate) and Darius (Boyd) couldn't run it back and he worked that out for himself.
"The crowd should have given him a standing ovation, and that's where Pearcey is right now, and to see him get in on the back of Jake Friend's run to ice the game, that's the sign of a player at the top of his game."
Knights coach Wayne Bennett refused to use the injuries to two of his key players as an excuse for the defeat or the fact that the Roosters had an 11-day turnaround while his team played last Monday.
"It wasn't too bad until the last 20 minutes," Bennett said.
"I'd love to say missing players was an excuse but we had good players out there today.
"We weren't executing well and making the most of the opportunities we made for ourselves. Just keep handing it back to them.
"The turnaround is all relevant but we compounded it all by putting ourselves under pressure for the whole game.
"Making error after error, giving away penalties when we had great field position. You can't compete with anybody at this level if keep doing that stuff."
