I think Bateman is the obvious captain in that side. Has a personality to lead the boys into battle. I’d love to have another decent pommy forward in the side, they may not be the best footballers but they generally come with a bit of mongrel, something a lot of the new age Nancy’s don’t have. Now I’m not having a go at Kepaoa, he was ok, but he was soft in the backs and he ain’t gonna add any starch to that pack. Need a couple of old school coal miners sons. It’s a different game and there’s no doubting these guys are physically superior but they just don’t seem to have that mental fortitude. They don’t make them like they used to
Bateman is surprisingly small in comparison to the other players in the players in the Tigers pack, but what he has is the ability to read what's going on and some f**king initiative.
Kepoa will be shifted to 2-man once Papali'i is back so he and Bateman are obvious edge forwards.
The big issue is the halves. I'm saying it now, a different halves combo and this tigers team wins the first 3 games. Against GC they had 7 consecutive minutes of ball, forwards doing their job, and all they came away with was 2 points. GC were high-fiving each other right there.
Against Newcastle, they looked aimless with considerable amount of goodball.
Against Canterbury, Douehi threw 2 intercepts because he can't read the play and change on the fly. There is zero communication from the halves and zero bodies in motion because the other players don't know what's going on.