Eels sweating on injuries
Tue 21 Mar, 2017, 6:00am
By Alicia Newton, National Correspondent , NRL.com
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Eels veteran Jeff Robson. Credit: Grant Trouville. Copyright: NRL Photos.
Parramatta Eels veteran Jeff Robson is open to slotting in at hooker against his former club with Kaysa Pritchard in doubt for the clash with the premiers with an ankle injury.
With other veteran Isaac De Gois sidelined indefinitely with concussion, the Eels are sweating on scan results for Pritchard who was hospitalised on Friday night after also suffering from a case of food poisoning according to Eels teammate Brad Takairangi.
As Eels skipper Corey Norman eyes off a return from a hamstring strain, the 34-year-old Robson joked you only had to look at his head to know he has played in the No.9 jersey several times throughout his rugby league career and was happy to play wherever coach Brad Arthur wanted him.
"I played plenty of hooker in my junior footy, and if need be, I can slot it in there if the coach needs me to," Robson said.
"Look at my head – I have played plenty of hooker in my time.
"I am not sure what is happening there, but if need be, I will play where he [Brad Arthur] wants me to play."
Providing the same impact as the in-form Norman was always going to prove a difficult task for the 176-game veteran, who admitted he could not live up to the 26-year-old's hype.
"Corey is a great footballer and I was never going to play to his standard," Robson said.
"I was just going out there to do my job and unfortunately with too many errors and penalties, we couldn't come away with the win.
"We have plenty of strike within our club and if he is not right next week, I am sure we will come away and play a lot better footy than we did this week."
The shock defeat to the Titans on Friday night brought the side back down to earth after two impressive performances to open the season, and the task will not get any easier for the blue and gold who face a Sharks outfit eager top bounce back from their local derby defeat to the Dragons.
"It was very disappointing in the dressing room afterwards, especially after playing really good footy in the first two rounds," Robson said.
"Everyone was disappointed with the loss… our errors, penalties and ill discipline footy cost us that game.
"We prepared the best that we could, went up there to win the game but as I said, with the errors and penalties, you can't make that in a game and expect to win footy.
"We knew they were going to come out hard; they have a great forward pack and they had a couple of young guys that were going to come out and do their jobs so we knew we had to play some good footy, and we just didn't do that.
"Their players that came in did a really good job and their forward pack played really well.
"They are a good team that deserved to win because they played better football than us."
After three rounds on the road, the Eels play their first home game of the season at the club's temporary home ground of ANZ Stadium for 2017, a venue where Arthur's side have won only five of their last 24 matches since 2010.
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