DAVE WOODS defended the players whose efforts have been going to waste – but said the whole team and coaching staff had to share the blame for York City Knights’ latest thumping.

Woods’ men scored seven tries away to Co-operative Championship champions Halifax but conceded 13 in a farcical 76-38 points-fest at The Shay – equalling the club record of points conceded in a match.

The Aussie described the defending as “embarrassing” as his side failed to get to grips with Sean Penkywicz and co, and, while he was now likely to “name and shame” guilty players in the next video session at training, albeit not publicly, he said team ethics meant all concerned had to take the rap.

“What was on display was embarrassing. That scoreline was embarrassing,” he blasted.

“To have that number of points scored against you is not good enough, nowhere near it.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s a cruel game, rugby league. We started really well and we thought, ‘here we go’. But we didn’t get any impact off the bench and we’ve got blokes in the squad that are whinging about being in the team and saying how good they are but when they get an opportunity they don’t take it. It’s just not good enough overall.

“We showed the players videos all week, we showed them what Sean Penkywicz will do, what their halves do, but we just let them run the show after that first ten minutes.

“We were scoring pretty much at will but you’ve got to defend as well.

“You feel sorry for some of them. Tom Bush at the back was tremendous and worked his ringer off. Jack Lee did a lot of work again, 40 or 50 tackles, and he’s come off with nothing. Alex Benson and Nathan Freer are doing a great job in the front row.

“But then you put replacements in and they make errors straight away and we’re on the back foot.

“We had a few blokes who worked really hard and you feel sorry for them, but it’s a team game – and the team and the rest of the coaching staff have to take some of the responsibility. At the end of the day we’re all to blame.”

Woods remained optimistic he would agree terms this week to remain as head coach for 2012. Negotiations are also ongoing with several players.

But he added: “We’re all playing for contracts and on that performance I don’t think any of us will get one.”

Woods had planned to give the players Tuesday night off training ahead of another blank weekend, and that will remain the case despite yesterday’s scoreline. Thursday’s session, though, might be an eye-opener.

“They will have Tuesday night off and we’ll see them on Thursday – because coming to training is not doing any good,” he lamented.

“We said to them stay away and have a think about what we’ve done, and we’ll come back on Thursday and see how we go. Some said they wanted to come in anyway and they might do that, I don’t know.

“Thursday night might be a long session and if we’re there till midnight then so be it. We will get through the video of the game and we’re going to start naming and shaming blokes now.

“I’ve said I’d rather have blokes from reserve grade who, while they might make mistakes, are going to have a dig, rather than blokes that look like they don’t care.”

York remain out of the drop zone but were grateful Hunslet lost in the last minute – for the third time in three games – at Barrow on Saturday. Woods added: “It’s in our hands but we’ve got to play a lot better than that.”