All the conspiracy theories about why Robbie Farah wasn’t selected for the Roosters game can be put to bed now that Jason Taylor has named him in the starting line up for this Friday night’s clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
A lot of nonsense was said and written about the NSW Origin hooker being rested after having played the entire 80 minutes for the Blues just four days earlier.
It probably wouldn’t have made much difference anyway, so meek was the capitulation by the hot and cold Tigers.
Indeed they were lucky to be only beaten by 14 points in the 32-18 loss to a team that had previously struggled to scrape together two wins in 13 rounds of footy.
In any case, conspiracy theory or not, coach Jason Taylor has included Farah in the side he has just named for the Round 14 match against the Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium.
Tim Grant will also return to the team after missing the last start due to a rib injury, forming part of a five-man interchange bench with Kyle Lovett, Dene Halatau, Sauaso Sue and Michael Chee Kam.
Apart from Farah, the spotlight will be on James Tedesco, who missed big minutes in Sunday’s match after being felled high, and not for the first time this season.
The young fullback is increasingly seen by opposition teams as the Wests Tigers’ biggest weapon.
Hopefully the referees will take steps to ensure this doesn’t keep happening.
Wests Tigers players will wear blue socks in this weekend’s game as part of the beyondblue awareness match against South Sydney, with Sue and Chris Lawrence Club ambassadors for the charity.
This aim of the partnership between Wests Tigers and beyondblue is to collaborate and raise awareness of depression, anxiety and suicide prevention in Australia and reduce the associated stigma.
In other grades, the Club’s Intrust Super Premiership side will look to return to the winners circle against Illawarra, with young prop JJ Felise dropping back after an impressive stint with the NRL side.
The Holden Cup team had their match against the Roosters postponed last weekend due to the weather at Allianz Stadium and now turn their focus to South Sydney this Friday.
Wests Tigers NRL – Round 14 v Rabbitohs:
1. James Tedesco
2. David Nofoaluma
3. Tim Simona
4. Kevin Naiqama
5. Joshua Addo-Carr
6. Mitchell Moses
7. Luke Brooks
8. Aaron Woods (C)
9. Robbie Farah
10. Ava Seumanufagai
11. Josh Aloiai
12. Chris Lawrence
13. Elijah Taylor
Interchange:
14. Sauaso Sue
15. Dene Halatau
16. Tim Grant
17. Kyle Lovett
18. Michael Chee Kam
