Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens challenged his forward pack on Thursday to make up for their lacklustre performance in last week’s thrashing to St George Illawarra.
The Tigers pack were outclassed in the 36-12 thumping, conceding several soft tries up the middle of the ruck, leaving Sheens to demand more from his troops against the highly-rated Canberra pack at Campbelltown Stadium on Monday.
“We’ve challenged the forwards this week to stand up and I’m confident they will,” said Sheens, who is still contemplating with club officials whether to recruit former NRL forward Willie Mason to bolster his side’s pack.
The Tigers concede they can’t continue to defend so poorly if they are to bounce back from the embarrassing loss, which came with key forwards Keith Galloway (toe) and Gareth Ellis (cork) sitting in the stands.
“It was disappointing night for us. Everyone out there didn’t play well,” lock Chris Heighington, who plays his 185th game for the club, said.
“We’ve got a fair bit of work to resurrect that.”
The club’s most capped front-rower, John Skandalis, said all 17 Tigers who faced the Dragons last week needed to take responsibility for the soft tries conceded in loss.
“It wasn’t the front rowers at fault, it was the whole team,” Skandalis said.
“I think it’s the old cliche, it’s not the one person who lets the team down, it’s the whole 17.
“We have been working hard and the front-rowers have assured us they can do the job and we believe them.
“You could name six or seven guys who were off their game last Friday night. It is just a matter of how they respond to it.”
They face a fresh challenge in the form of the Raiders, who boast one of the competition’s leading packs and Skandalis says it is time for the pre-season premiership favourites to step up.
“They have to step up a lot,” he said.
Influential back-rower Ellis is expected to play, but his return is offset by the loss of skipper Robbie Farah to a two-game suspension for a dangerous throw.
Farah will be replaced at hooker by back-rower Liam Fulton, but Sheens hinted a specialist No.9 – expected to be Pat Politoni – will play some minutes during the game.
