May

Australia Samoa Newspaper
Sports
02 May 2016
21
Poor policy: Bennett slams Meninga
Wayne Bennett has taken aim at
Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga
over his decision to name his
first Australian side ahead of the NRL’s ninth
round, the Brisbane mentor claiming it contributed
to his side’s loss to Cronulla on Sunday.
Meninga broke with convention earlier this
week by naming the Australian side, which included
five Broncos, on Tuesday.
The Kangaroos side has traditionally been
named at the conclusion of the round before
the trans-Tasman Test.
Meninga, who was awarded the Kangaroos
coaching role ahead of Bennett, said the
move was made for logistical reasons to best
get his players ready for the short turnaround
to Friday’s trans-Tasman Test.
However Bennett said it wasn’t necessary.
“I’m not keen to make excuses but I was
pretty disappointed when they named the
team this week,” Bennett said after Brisbane’s
30-28 loss to Cronulla at Shark Park.
“I have been a long-time coach and I know
the impact it has on footballers. We haven’t
done that before.
“It is not the reason we lost, it is part of the
reason. We were a little flat.
“It is not good policy to announce the team
like that. They would rather find out now.”
Bennett said rookies like Josh McGuire,
who will make his Test debut against New
Zealand in Newcastle on Friday, were likely
affected. It was something he anticipated in
the lead-up to the round nine match.
“I sensed it yesterday,” he said.
“I kept the Australian and New Zealand
players back and I told them. I knew what
was going on with them. I tried to help them
try and handle it a bit better mentally so they
get here today and played well.
“We had Josh McGuire who has never
played for Australia, Corey Parker has a lot of
jerseys, but it only takes two or three guys in
this competition and you are off your game.”
Kangaroos Parker, McGuire, Darius Boyd,
Matt Gillett and Sam Thaiday all took the field
for Brisbane against Cronulla.
Parker didn’t use his Australian selection
as an excuse for the loss.
“We have a job to do,” he said.
Kangaroos prop and Sharks skipper Paul
Gallen, who returns to the Australian side after
a two-year absence, said the Test wasn’t
on his mind ahead of the Broncos match-up.
“I thought this morning I hadn’t even
thought about the Test match I was so keen
to play in this game so for me no, it wasn’t an
issue,” Gallen said.
“I’m sure maybe for other blokes it was.”
In round nine’s other games, injury-hit
Wests Tigers beat South Sydney 30-22 on
Thursday night.
Parramatta, minus Kieran Foran, beat
Canterbury 20-12 on Friday night.
Penrith beat Canberra 19-18 at Bathurst
on Saturday via a controversial Peter Wallace
field goal.
Sydney Roosters notched their second
Source : AAP
win of the season in Mitchell Pearce and
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ comeback game,
thumping Newcastle 38-0 on Saturday evening.
North Queensland defeated Manly 34-18
at Brookvale Oval on Saturday night.
The Warriors downed St George Illawarra
26-10 in Auckland on Sunday.
Gold Coast were held scoreless for the
first time in their history in losing 38-0 to Melbourne.
The NRL now breaks for one week for the
representative round.
Taylor leaves Panthers for Wests Tigers
Former New Zealand international
Elijah Taylor has been
released by Penrith to join
NRL rivals Wests Tigers for the rest of
the season.
Taylor has spent the best part of
2016 languishing in reserve grade
after being dropped in round three by
Panthers coach Anthony Griffin.
On Monday afternoon, Penrith
released a statement saying they
had let Taylor go after two-and-a-half
years at the club and the Wests Tigers
subsequently announced they had
signed the 26-year-old backrower.
Taylor's manager, Ian Miles, had
late last week told NZ Newswire of his
client's interest in switching codes to
have a crack at rugby union in which
he represented Auckland as a teenager.
Following this week's representative
round, Taylor will join his new
teammates at Wests Tigers training
and will be in line to make his debut
for the club in round 10 against Canterbury.
An 80-minute workhorse, Taylor
will add solid depth to the Tigers' forward
stocks having played 106 NRL
games between the Warriors and
Panthers and 10 Tests for New Zealand.
"I haven't played a lot of first grade
this year so I'm really looking forward
to the opportunity," Taylor said.
"I'm also looking forward to working
with experienced players such as
Robbie Farah and Aaron Woods."
Wests Tigers chief executive Justin
Pascoe says Taylor will be on trial for
a longer stay at the club.
Source : nz.sports.yahoo.com