Bench Rotation

[chopsy_05]

As was highlighted in the loss tonight I think our bench rotation has been terrible. It looks like it's JT's ambition to play Lawrence off the bench in coming weeks too when Simona/Nofa are fit to play. In my opinion we can't afford to carry Lawrence and Halatau on the bench. My solution is this - I would start Halatau at lock pushing Taupau back to the bench. We all know how dynamic he can be against tired defenders so we should be using him for that to maintain the rage. We have lost all momentum when Galloway, Woods and Taupau hit the bench around the 20-25 minute mark. Bring Taupau on for one of the front rowers for a bit of impact. Keep him on til about the 55 min mark before bringing Galloway back on allowing Taupau to come back at about the 70th minute. I would play Halatau much like a Fensom. He has been solid defensively this year and rarely missed one defending at hooker off the bench or in the middle like tonight. Unfortunately I doubt we will see Lawrence dropped so I think a bench of Lawrence, Ava, Taupau and Sue (Lodge has not impressed me at all). Will be better than our current rotation and Taupau will still be getting similar minutes to when he started.

 

[Tigerted]

Chopsy, I totally agree.Halatau must start & was one of few who played well for us last night.Lodge has been disappointing albeit he's only 20 yrs of age & Taupau definitely must be coming on @ 20-25 min mark as our bench has impotent impact.The jury is out in a huge way re our 1st grade rookies.Its early days but geez they were out of there depth last night.Its time for Galloway to find another occupation maybe as a hillsong pastor.

 

[Tiger05]

Halatau was awesome last night.

 

[gronkathon]

Lodge is second game back from injury.

Apart from Marty & Lodge when he is in form nobody in our pack scares anyone. They are paper tigers

 

[macnaz]

Lodge is second game back from injury.

Apart from Marty & Lodge when he is in form nobody in our pack scares anyone. They are paper tigers

Thats it.

 

[Tiger05]

Halatau showed though that they don't have to scare anyone. They just have to make good tackles and quality runs.

We just got rolled over last night and it was embarrassing.

 

[moller]

Agree with OP. The Taupau move to #13 isn't exactly a failure, but he's much better served as an impact player.
Sadly our back row stocks are absolutely pathetic, so there's no easy answer.

 

[Shanghai Charlie]

We need a couple of quality backrowers

 

[N.C.]

I'd be looking at swapping Sue and Lovett around as well.

 

[Fordy20]

The intensity drops when our bench comes on because those guys simply haven't had the minutes this season. Ava in particular has had bugger all minutes. An interesting experiment would be to start Ava and Sue at prop and lock respectively and see how we go with Taupau and Galloway coming off the bench. Should do the same thing with the second row. Start Halatau and Lovett and see how Lovett goes playing 80 mins for a change.

As soon as Simona is fit, Naiqama and Hoeter should be swapped straight out for Nofoaluma and Simona. Leave Lawrence on the other side of the field at centre to see how he goes getting decent service.

 

[gronkathon]

Sick of the same old "give lawrence a chance at centre with......"

He is done as an effective outside back and the quicker the club can f**k him and his bloated, backended bullshit deal off the better things will get

 

[Bigcoq]

Not as good as Roosters yet, Taylor will improve It over time.

 

[macnaz]

Not as good as Roosters yet, Taylor will improve It over time.

Not unless he was able to bring some of those paper bags over from the roosters