Forwards Sending Wests Into Reverse

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday June 16, 2008

Glenn Jackson

AGAIN, Wests Tigers have a big problem. And after more sizeable Tigers players went down yesterday against Parramatta, they may be forced into a big solution.

Tigers officials yesterday admitted they may be forced to gamble on the return of some injured front-rowers after the club lost three forwards during yesterday's 44-6 defeat.

Danny Galea, who started in the front row due to the withdrawal of Keith Galloway and the continued absence of Bryce Gibbs, Todd Payten and Ryan O'Hara, fell awkwardly after just five minutes, ruptured his Achilles tendon and will be out for the season.

In the second half, it got worse. Tigers second-rower Ben Te'o withdrew from the game because of severe cramp, while Corey Payne injured his shoulder and may miss the Tigers' Friday night contest with the Broncos.

Gibbs (knee), Payten (hamstring) and Liam Fulton (shoulder) will all be assessed this week and, despite the short turnaround, may be rushed back in.

"We could be forced to gamble a little bit. We've got a shortage of numbers," Tigers club doctor Donald Kuah said, adding that no one would be risked if there were a chance they would be forced to spend any extra time on the sidelines.

Coach Tim Sheens joked: "I've asked Royce [Simmons, assistant coach] to play next week. Toddy and Bryce are some chance, but we've only got 'til Friday. We'll only get one decent session in before we play. I'm not likely to make too many [changes] outside of what's forced.

"Toddy's been out for quite a while. His experience will be obviously handy although we'll have to interchange him carefully."

Galea was shattered after the match following an injury Sheens described as "a disaster". But while the injury occurred on newly laid turf at ANZ Stadium, club officials and the player insisted there was little chance the surface contributed to the damage.

"It [the hamstring] just gave way," Galea said. "I couldn't put any pressure on it. There were no holes or anything. I was just driving off the line. I do it every week."

The Eels took advantage of the Tigers' obvious size advantage in similar circumstances to the corresponding game last year. The Eels bashed them in the forwards at Homebush to inflict a defeat which gave the Tigers some mental scarring.

Yesterday certainly produced a similar result on the field - a significant defeat - and on the skin - significant bruising. It remains to be seen whether the mental scarring is as significant.

Maybe for that reason, Sheens refused to claim the size difference was an excuse.

"We allowed their size to dominate us by compounding it with a lot of dropped ball," he said. "We're not going to use that as an excuse. That's a reason, but we compounded it by not completing [sets of six tackles] in the first half. We gave them the field position, where size does matter."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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