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Bench the best hope for Carney, Farah
Steve Jancetic
November 1, 2010AAP
Dally M medal winner Todd Carney’s best hope for a debut Test jumper appears to be a bench spot in Saturday night’s Four Nations dead rubber against New Zealand.
Australian coach Tim Sheens has indicated he will give his first choice playmakers another run against the Kiwis at Eden Park in a dress rehearsal for the tournament final a week later in Brisbane.
Though Sheens has done his best to ensure his players have their minds on the job for the dead rubber by declaring positions are still up for grabs.
Advertisement: Story continues belowSheens indicated he would stick with his pre-tournament plan to give all 24 players in his squad a run, but the spine of fullback Billy Slater, hooker Cameron Smith and halves Darren Lockyer and Cooper Cronk would all play this weekend.
“Lockyer and Cooper are still not quite getting it right - unless there’s a problem, the spine will definitely start,” Sheens said.
“Cooper and Locky have only played that one game (the May Test) this year and again last week it was not conducive to getting the seven and six thing happening.”
That means the likes of Carney and Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah will probably have to settle for a spot on the bench, while St George Illawarra’s Clive Churchill medallist Darius Boyd will likely get a run on the wing.
Of the other four players yet to play in the tournament, centre Chris Lawrence is set to get a run at the expense of either Willie Tonga or Brent Tate, while Greg Bird shapes as an ideal replacement for the injured Luke Lewis in the second row, despite Lewis saying he was keen to play.
That would leave Dean Young and Matt Scott to come off the bench, but that too presents its own problems for Sheens, leaving him with an interchange rotation featuring two playmakers, a backrower and just one prop against what is likely to be a big Kiwi pack.
“I’ll probably give everyone some sort of a run - whether or not it’s straight up or off the bench it’s tough to say,” Sheens said.
"It’s not going to be radical changes - I’m going to tinker with a number of things in the forwards.
"I’m having a look at all options … it gives the boys who played (Sunday night) and last week plus the boys next week a chance to say ‘okay, now I can assess (everyone)’.
“I don’t want to change the playmakers to any great degree but the younger playmakers need to get a little bit of time.”
The Australians held a recovery session in Melbourne on Monday morning with Lewis showing little effects of the calf injury which forced him from the field midway through the second half of Sunday night’s win over England.
The squad travelled to Auckland later on Monday, with several players in the squad running for the Rugby League International Federation player of the year awards to be held there on Wednesday night.
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Plenty left in the tank, warns Sheens
November 2, 2010There’s plenty left in the tank before the Four Nations final, warns Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens. Glenn Jackson reports.
IF NEW ZEALAND are expecting Australia to hold anything back this Saturday night in Auckland, given they will meet a week later in the Four Nations final in Brisbane, the words of Kangaroos hooker Cameron Smith might surprise them.
“We don’t want to go over there and just take this match as just a bit of a run around so we’re right for the final,” Smith said. “We want to go over there and win, and take that confidence into the final.”
Advertisement: Story continues belowThe Kangaroos have been slightly stung by the suggestions that, in scoring a total of 76 points and conceding 14 in matches against Papua New Guinea and England, they have been underperforming and would enjoy sending a message to the Kiwis in the dress rehearsal this weekend.
Australian coach Tim Sheens has already stated he believed the Kiwis were in better form than his side, but Smith offered the flipside of that argument – the fact that the Kangaroos are yet to play their best football means they have more to give.
“They [the Kiwis] played a pretty good game against the Poms, but they played on dry tracks and they’ve had a warm-up match as well leading into it, so they’ve had one more game than us,” Smith said. "But we’re all confident that we can play well and win this tournament. We’ve played two games where we weren’t at our best and still won quite well.
“You can look at it different ways. Some people will look at it as a negative that we haven’t played so well, and they get a little bit scared by that. But I look at it as a positive, that we know we’ve still got our best left in us.”
That said, the Australians were horrified by the ease with which the English scored their two tries – to front-rower Sam Burgess and halfback Luke Robinson – in Melbourne on Sunday night. “As an Australian side, we need to be better,” Smith said.
Smith admitted the Kangaroos were struggling to deal with the officiating in the tournament – Sheens and his England counterpart Steve McNamara complained loud and long about the speed of the play-the-ball on Sunday.
“They [the English] were all over our boys,” Smith said. "We’re still playing like we’re playing in club matches, where as soon as a ball runner hits the ground, they’re calling held and [they] move straight away.
"That’s where we went wrong [against England], that’s where they got that first try to Sammy under the posts – a couple of quick play-the-balls and they just pipped us for numbers around the posts. The two tries they did score were fairly soft.
"If we fix that area, and everyone understands that you seem to be allowed to hold down a bit longer in these tournaments . . . we’ve just got to get our heads around that, that we can stay on them a bit longer and use the time that the referees are allowing us.
“I think our defence will be a lot better then.”
Sheens has already foreshadowed changes. Second-rower Luke Lewis is already in doubt with a calf injury, but he said yesterday he wouldn’t be letting any of the Emus – the seven players yet to see any Four Nations game time – slide in at his expense even if it means a rest leading into the final.
“I just want to play for my country,” Lewis said. “I don’t care what game it’s in, I just like putting the jersey on, and the socks and everything.”
The seven players who are yet to play in the tournament were put through a 45-minute training session on AAMI Park shortly after full-time on Sunday. One of them, forward Dean Young, said the Emus would be “ready” to face the Kiwis even though they lack game time.
“If we get a chance against New Zealand, we’ll be ready,” Young said. “If you could pick a game to play, it’d be against New Zealand.”
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Gallon and Watmough should be dropped. How many chances do they get? Watmough’s form during the NL season was poor as well. Where’s big Keef G when you need him, Sheensie?
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IMO 6,7 and 9 have all been ordinary. I would rest lockyer and smith this week throwing in farah and carney. If Lawrence isnt a better footballer than tate or tonga then i’m not here. Bird is better than TLL and Watmough.
Has anyone else been frustrated with the side? -
Lote could provide the key to help beat Benji Chris Barrett
November 3, 2010TIM SHEENS is no longer the only one in the Kangaroos camp with the inside word on Benji Marshall. The selection of Lote Tuqiri in the Four Nations tournament provides Australia with a deeper repository of intelligence on the masterful Kiwis five-eighth and captain.
Tuqiri, of course, is no certainty to take the field against New Zealand at Eden Park on Saturday night in light of Sheens’s stated plan to make changes for the Test, which occurs a week before the same countries meet in the final in Brisbane.
However, as a club colleague of Marshall at Wests Tigers, the 31-year-old winger knows more than most about the tricks of the superstar playmaker’s trade.
Advertisement: Story continues below ‘‘I have a bit of an inside track on what he does … and obviously our coach Tim Sheens will as well,’’ Tuqiri told 3 News NZ in Auckland. ‘‘The thing is you can go out there and expect things that he does but also he pulls some other things out of the bag as well. There’s things we’ll have to try and counter.’’
A late call-up to the Australian squad, Tuqiri’s elevation into the starting side for the Kangaroos’ opening two matches of the series against Papua New Guinea and England came at the expense of Clive Churchill Medal winner Darius Boyd.
He knows his position, as do many of his teammates, is anything but safe as the final looms, with Sheens intending to utilise some of the seven squad members - Boyd possibly included - against the Kiwis. The coach’s stance, conceived out of disappointment at the Kangaroos’ 34-14 win over England on Sunday, has given the so-called dead rubber a sniff of life.
‘‘We’ve got to perform,’’ Tuqiri said. ‘‘There is that many good players who are just going to go out there and do the business if you don’t. It’s plain to see that the guys who aren’t in the team, or who haven’t been playing, are great players so you can’t leave them out for that long.’’
Boyd may ultimately not appear in the tournament but he is a contender for the main prize at the RLIF International Player of the Year awards, to be held in Auckland tonight. The other finalists for world player of the year honours are fellow Australians Todd Carney and Billy Slater, Marshall, England’s James Graham, Adrian Morley and Sam Tomkins and the Wigan winger Pat Richards.
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IMO 6,7 and 9 have all been ordinary. I would rest lockyer and smith this week throwing in farah and carney. If Lawrence isnt a better footballer than tate or tonga then i’m not here. Bird is better than TLL and Watmough.
Has anyone else been frustrated with the side?Yes, some freshness, speed and creativity is badly needed. I’d have Farah, Carney, Boyd and Lawrence all in there somewhere.
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IMO 6,7 and 9 have all been ordinary. I would rest lockyer and smith this week throwing in farah and carney. If Lawrence isnt a better footballer than tate or tonga then i’m not here. Bird is better than TLL and Watmough.
Has anyone else been frustrated with the side?very much so, a good 2 or 3 of the opening tries against England were fairly lucky, have not been impressed with the side at all. I think if there are no changes this week, I wouldn’t be expecting an Aussie win, anything is possible, but I just can’t see it with the same side.
I’d like to see Carney, Farah and Lawrence to be given a go……and yeah Greg Bird as well.
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Carney to make Test debut for Kangaroos
November 4, 2010 - 11:18AMTodd Carney, Chris Lawrence, Matt Scott and Dean Young have all been selected to make their rugby league Test debuts for Australia in Saturday’s Four Nations clash with New Zealand in Auckland.
Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens has dropped fullback Billy Slater and captain Darren Lockyer to make way for Darius Boyd as custodian and new International Player of the Year Carney at five-eighth, with Cameron Smith taking over as skipper.
Sheens said the selections were merit-based and not because the Eden Park match is a dead rubber with with the two unbeaten teams set to meet again in Saturday week’s final in Brisbane.
Advertisement: Story continues below “Boyd and Carney have actually been in better form this season and in training I was very impressed with how they performed,” said Sheens.
“That is why they are in the team.”
North Queensland prop Scott comes into the starting side with veteran Petero Civoniceva dropping to the bench while Wests Tigers centre Lawrence replaces Willie Tonga and Dragons hooker Young gets a spot in the bench.
Australia: Darius Boyd, Brett Morris, Brent Tate, Chris Lawrence, Lote Tuqiri, Todd Carney, Cooper Cronk, Matt Scott, Cameron Smith (capt), Dave Shillington, Greg Bird, Sam Thaiday, Paul Gallen. Interchange: Dean Young, Petero Civoniceva, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Robbie Farah, Kurt Gidley.
