Why exactly would anyone put tahu in their side??
the bloke has been an absolute liability for the eels, costing them the win against the sharks (dropped a certain try and dropped a sitter of a pass to give fergusson one of his).
Tahu is playing in a team low on confidence ... everyone there is low on confidence.
Despite the fact that he has dropped a couple of balls (FMD I saw Lockyer knock on a couple of times this season, does that mean he is a liability to the Broncos?!), he is still one of the few players I could put my faith in to be able to contest bombs against someone like Tuqiri, Folau or Inglis, and even Boyd (if he is picked) is excellent in the air.
Joel Monaghan is another, but he has been injured all season so far.
Furthermore, why would anyone put Bird in their side?
Because he can defend, and because I have Gidley/Carney on the bench to come on in the second half and play as a playmaker, leaving Bird to play more as a second lock.
I disagree with people putting Carney and Pearce in the halves .... neither can defend, and Carney hasn't played five-eighth for 3 years, yet people think he will go fine in an Origin game?!?
We are not going to beat Queensland in a pointscoring competition .... they have too much quality in the backline and if we score 30 in an open game, they'll score 34.
We have to base the team on defence first, and Bird is probably the best defender of the possible five-eighths.
That's my opinion anyway.
