Wests Tigers may have given up more points than any other side over the opening two rounds of the NRL, but coach Tim Sheens knows it could have been a whole lot worse.

"Given the amount (of ball) we gave them we should have been beaten by 60," Sheens said of his side's 42-14 loss to North Queensland on Saturday night.

"You're not going to beat anyone let alone the Cowboys at home with that amount of turnovers."

That's why the Tigers, kitted out in full padded suits, were forced to slog it out for over an hour on an unseasonably warm autumn's day at Concord Oval on Tuesday.

It was all tackle, tackle, tackle - Sheens drumming into his side the importance of keeping the defensive line intact.

But according to Sheens, tackling wasn't the Tigers biggest issue, rather it was their inability to hold onto the ball against the Cowboys.

No ball means you're tackling, and the Tigers did plenty of it.

"It's an issue, but the problem with our defence, it was self-inflicted with respect to the amount of ball we turned over," Sheens said.

"Normally in a game eight or nine errors from us is acceptable - we had 20 errors - and a lot of them on first tackle.

"Discipline with penalties and discipline with carrying the football and some poor passing were things that were unacceptable.

"Any defence is going to be put under the pump."

Backrower Chris Heighington said the Tigers would need to have a better attitude in defence against the Sydney Roosters on Friday night, particularly with halves Braith Anasta and Mitchell Pearce having found form against Canberra last weekend.

"Our attack wasn't too good and we were dropping a lot of ball, it puts a lot of pressure on your defence," Heighington said.

"Hopefully we can complete our sets, get 50 per cent of the ball and then we can probably defend a little bit better and get off the line a bit better.

"They (Pearce and Anasta) are both quality players, you've just (got to try and) minimise they're contribution to the game. You can't really take them out them game."

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