Young lions repay Tigers
By*Brad Walter
June 23 2003
Wests Tigers 30 Sydney Roosters 22
As Mark O'Halloran limped out the door of the Campbelltown Stadium change rooms after yesterday's win over Sydney Roosters, Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens yelled: "See you in a couple of weeks, Sparkles".
Sheens had earlier said something similar to the rookie winger after being forced to replace him midway through the first half with a bad knee injury, but at the interval O'Halloran suddenly declared that he was available to go back on.
He shouldn't have, of course, and will now be sidelined for up to a month with cartilage damage, but the Tigers were desperate after also losing centre Nick Bradley-Qalilawa with a shoulder injury so O'Halloran asked to be needled up.
"The guys have been trying hard all year and we were down to 15 [fit] players so I just wanted to see if I could run," O'Halloran said. "I might miss a few weeks now but hopefully that will be it and I'll be back."
Sheens said: "He popped a cartilage, we got it back in and strapped it up so he did well. He can't bend his knee at the moment so he'll be a sore boy tomorrow, that's for sure."
O'Halloran's attitude typified the spirit of the Tigers yesterday against a depleted Roosters outfit.
Despite having eight players on the sideline through injury themselves, they were confident of beating the premiers but knew it wouldn't be easy - particularly after last year's embarrassing loss to a second-string Brisbane side at the same venue.
But since Sheens told the majority of players coming off contract that they were free to negotiate with rival clubs a month ago, the Tigers have beaten the Bulldogs and the Roosters and lost narrowly to Manly and Cronulla.
During that time Sheens has indicated the club's future lies with youngsters like O'Halloran, five-eighth Daniel Fitzhenry, prop Anthony Laffranchi and goalkicking winger Luke Covell, and they are now repaying his faith.
"At the end of the day my attitude is to plan for the future as well as coach for today," Sheens said. "It's difficult for a kid like Fitzy but he's handling it all right. Fitzy has had less than 26 first grade games and I've asked him to play five-eighth.
"It's not easy to run a side struggling at times and then take the game by the throat so it's not a bad effort."
The 23-year-old instigated the opening try for Covell in just the fourth minute and scored himself just before half-time to give the Tigers a 16-6 lead at the break.
But the thing that impressed Sheens the most about his side was the manner in which they hung on after the break when the Roosters appeared set to snatch a late win.
Utility Ben Galea dived over two minutes into the second term to put the home side ahead 22-6 but aside from a 61st-minute Covell penalty goal they did not score again until the final play of the game.
In between, Fitzhenry's opposite, former Test captain Brad Fittler, seized control of the game to lay on tries for Ryan Cross, halfback Brett Finch and centre Lelea Paea as the Roosters got to within two points 12 minutes from full-time.
With the Tigers out on their feet, a repeat of last weekend's Fittler-inspired 15-14 win over North Queensland looked inevitable. But a series of well-placed kicks by Fitzhenry and pressure from O'Halloran caused stand-in Roosters fullback Todd Byrne to fumble twice on his own line and Laffranchi sealed the win by crossing in the 80th minute.
"What we have at the moment is a very good group of young players," Sheens said. "There's been enough effort in the club this year, we've just lacked enough class in a few key positions."
Meanwhile, Terry Hill was placed on report for striking Brett Finch and Adrian Morley also was reported for a high tackle on Corey Pearson.
Despite being without six players on Origin duty and another two injured, Roosters coach Ricky Stuart said his side had budgeted to win yesterday's match and was disappointed.
"We've made some goals and we're on track to achieve them but I think losses like this really affect that," Stuart said. "To achieve our goal we had to win this game which is why a lot of the guys are disappointed. But that's good. I like to see people disappointed after losses."
