Foundation Cup: TEAMS AND MATCHDAY DETAILS

[bigben]

geeze thats interesting, pritchard on the bench ? what about naughton is he injured ?

[Guest]

Pritchard is the 7th bench player. Hargraves was meant to play for Newtown on Sunday, however with Conn suffering an injury midweek smith has been forced to push JWH back into the team.

Thats interesting, Smith maybe not happy with JWH?? Why would he play for Newtown?

[ism22]

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...215-1auzy.html

"Anasta also revealed that despite being named at lock forward for the bulk of last season, he actually played in the secondrow - but continued to be named at lock to ward off media scrutiny."

That's an interesting one... I don't know the game well enough to have picked it, but it's interesting because we have so many 2nd rowers!

Does this suggest that Smith has been naming a lot of players as 2nd rowers simply to knock the opposition off, while playing them in different positions? Maybe he has a plan for all our 2nd rowers... be VERY interesting to see...

In the mean time I should study up on the roles of the positions more... had me fooled last season!

[elo]

geeze thats interesting, pritchard on the bench ? what about naughton is he injured ?

Naughton will be lining up for the Jets.

Rhys Pritchard
Tom Kerr
Willie Mataka
Francis Vaiotu
Steve Naughton
Brett Lane
Kurt Kara
Khalid Deeb ©
Jamie Clark
Lama Tasi
Brad Barrett
Brad Takairangi
Tinirau Arona

Boyd Strickland
Byron Fruean
Ahmad Ellaz
Ryan Verlinden
Josh Kent
Sione Taka
Chris Enahoro

[Guest]

That's an interesting one... I don't know the game well enough to have picked it, but it's interesting because we have so many 2nd rowers!

Does this suggest that Smith has been naming a lot of players as 2nd rowers simply to knock the opposition off, while playing them in different positions? Maybe he has a plan for all our 2nd rowers... be VERY interesting to see...

In the mean time I should study up on the roles of the positions more... had me fooled last season!

The role of lock has changed significantly in recent years. Not all coaches require the same contribution from the position, but Smithy nowadays likes his 13 to play very tight with heavy involvement. Under that system it is more like having a third, more agile prop on the field than an extra backrower. Defends a tad wider so needs a bit more agility.
With the lock contributing hit-ups and a high tackle count, it allows the second-rowers to lurk wide all game. They are not required to have heavy involvement, but instead to play close to 80 minutes and provide genuine strike power.
Smithy likes his smoke screens, but I think the only major one regarding the backrow last year was Braith. The media and general public know he's played lock before (in the old style version of the position), but naming him in number 11 might have attracted attention.