Enforcer Martin Taupau and fellow backrower Chris Lawrence return for the Wests Tigers when they travel to the Shire to tackle the Cronulla Sharks this Saturday afternoon in round 24 of the NRL.
Taupau is back after serving a three week suspension, while Lawrence has recovered from injury.
The pair, who will add a bit of backbone to the Tigers defence, are the only changes made to the team that meekly capitulated to the Newcastle Knights 24-18 at Campbelltown last Saturday afternoon after racing to a 10-0 lead.
It was obvious that despite the efforts of coach Jason Taylor the team was lacking motivation in playing a team that was going even worse than themselves.
Motivation hasn’t been a problem when playing better performing teams, which explains the back to back victories over Storm and Canberra the previous two rounds before the debacle at Campbelltown.
Which means the Tigers will almost certainly put on a better show against the Sharks, who despite getting mauled by Melbourne on Monday night, will be playing finals footy this season.
Taylor, who has named a 19 man squad for the Remondis Stadium clash, has made some positional changes to his line up.
The return of Taupau sees Sauaso Sue move to prop, resulting in Keith Galloway dropping back to the interchange bench.
Fullback James Tedesco has been named for his 50th NRL match this week, with the Camden Rams junior just one of three Wests Tigers players not to miss a game this year (Kevin Naiqama and Mitch Moses are the other two).
In NSW Cup team news, Penani Manumalealii replaces the injured Tim Moltzen in the halves, bringing Mark McCormack onto the bench for the clash with Mounties.
WESTS TIGERS ROUND 24 V SHARKS 3PM SATURDAY
1. James Tedesco
2. David Nofoaluma
3. Kevin Naiqama
4. Tim Simona
5. Pat Richards
6. Mitchell Moses
7. Luke Brooks
8. Aaron Woods
9. Robbie Farah (C)
10. Sauaso Sue
11. Curtis Sironen
12. Dene Halatau
13. Martin Taupau
Interchange:
14. Kyle Lovett
15. Keith Galloway
16. Ava Seumanufagai
17. Chris Lawrence
18. Manaia Cherrington
19. Jack Buchanan
