Knights debutant Chris Randall says he had no idea of the extent of his defensive heroics against Penrith last Sunday until he turned on his mobile phone after the game and saw he'd been bombarded with text messages.
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Randall, who has been left out of the squad for Sunday's clash with Canberra with coach Adam O'Brien wary of asking too much of his rookie hooker in consecutive weeks, set a new benchmark for an NRL first-timer by making a remarkable 71 tackles and missing just two in 78 minutes of footy after coming off the bench in just the fourth minute to replace a concussed Mitchell Pearce.
He also ran seven times for a 53 metre gain and had the ball in his hands 100 times.
Such was his workrate, he was out on his feet and playing from memory at times but he managed to play 78 minutes straight before being replaced in golden point after cramping up.
He admitted he wasn't aware of the extent of his tackle count until he checked his phone after the game.
"I didn't realise but my phone was going off with all these messages about something and a lot of it was about that," he said.
"It's not a game I'll forget. I'm not sure I've played a tougher game. I was that fatigued but just really happy to get through and do a job for the boys."
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Randall revealed he first started feeling tired just 10 minutes after coming on.
"I wasn't ready for that. I saw Junior go down and sort of realised what was about to happen," he said.
"I probably started feeling tired 10 minutes in. The first half was the hardest for me because I was just getting involved with everything and chasing everything and wasn't sort of probably pacing myself.
"I probably got caught up in the moment a bit there trying my hardest and it sort of gassed me a bit in the first half. But I got through it.
"I was pretty rattled at halftime but Ads [coach Adam O'Brien] was pretty happy with how we were all going and how tough we were with hanging in there.
"He just encouraged us to stay resilient and keep working hard for each other.He wanted us to stay tough. It probably wasn't the prettiest but it's what we did and it is definitely one to remember.
"Everyone was really proud of each other for the fight we put up."
Adding to the occasion, Randall had some family watching in the grandstand.
"Bedsy [Danny Buderus] told us the day before the game he'd be able to get a few family in and that was massive for me because through the week, he sort of said we couldn't so it was a great little boost to have them there," he said. I had my mum, my pop and my brother there so I was stoked with that."
Randall said the effort was something the squad could build on over the course of the season.
"Considering the situation with everything that happened and how resilient we were, we can really build on that for the rest of the season and look back on that effort going forward," he said.
"If we can dig deep like that, it's looking good for the rest of the season and anything is possible."
