Wests Tigers forward Chris Lawrence made a timely return from injury in Round 23 as he looks to help his side secure an unlikely finals finish with two games to play.
For Ivan Cleary's side to qualify for the finals for the first time since 2011, they'll need to win both of their remaining matches and hope that either the Brisbane Broncos or New Zealand Warriors lose both of theirs — something that he said was an unfortunate but not completely forlorn position to be in.
"We still are a chance of making the semi-finals, that's the truth," Lawrence enthused.
"Unfortunately it's out of our hands now and that's something you don't want happening, but that's the situation we're in and we can't control anything other than how we perform.
"All we can control is this weekend so it's all we're really focused on.
"We'll review last week's game and look at those areas we need to improve on, but we have to identify those quickly and move on because we've got a game coming up in a few days time and we have to win that. Our execution in particular has to be better than what it was against the Dragons.
Women in League High Tea
"If we can come out and rectify the things we were poor on last week, we'll get the win," he said.
"When we do that, it does put the pressure on the other sides because we're the first game of the week but we can't be looking to far ahead — we need to fix them and be better than what we were."
Returning on the left edge with a try that saw him re-take the title as the club's all-time top try-scorer — ahead of Benji Marshall — Lawrence paid special tribute to the form of his defensive partner on the left, emphasising that Luke Brooks is playing as good as he's seen him since his debut season in 2013.
"I think Brooksy has been one of if not our best all season," he said.
"Consistently he's been great and I'm really proud of him in the way that his defensive has improved.
"He really leads the side around and his running game — we all know how good his running game is — but he's still managed to take that to another level this year and I think it's really helped our game.
"I've really been impressed with how he's taken charge in so many different parts of our game.
"I still think that he's another few gears he can go up, and I think he'll admit that as well, which is a scary thing when you consider how much he's improved over the last 12 months.
"I think he's only going to be an even better player next year."
See what Chris Lawrence had to say in full about this week's game in the video above!
