Aussies ready for Italian job
ITALIAN rugby league players James Tedesco (left) and Jack Johns (right) go through their paces during training at West Barlow Park yesterday. Johns, the son of former Newcastle NRL player and TV personality Matthew Johns, looks set to play in the halves for the Azzurri to kick off their Rugby League World Cup campaign against Ireland on Sunday. Don’t forget to pick up Thursday’s Cairns Post with our Rugby League World Cup lift-out.
TONGA should be able to wrestle with the best of them throughout the Rugby League World Cup and Michael Jennings expects it to pay dividends starting on Sunday against Scotland.
The star-studded team trained at Stan Williams Park for the first time yesterday, continuing to focus on defensive techniques after a promising start in their trial last week.
You would think the likes of Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita could just barge through the middle but Jennings said there was more to it before creative players could take advantage of their work.
“For our forwards, I think that’s something we really wanted to concentrate on after playing Italy,” he said.
“We didn’t really control the ruck that well.
“It’s pretty tough for myself – having 200-plus kilos on you, it’s really tough to get a quick play-the-ball and we’ve got some big boppers in our team so if we can slow the ruck down and get a fair few seconds there it does help a lot for our defence.”
Jennings refused to underestimate first-up opponents Scotland, who suffered a shellacking in their opening trial game with an inexperienced side.
“We’re not going to look too much into that,” he said.
“I think it’s more worrying about how we’re going to approach the game and how we’re going to be better than what we were against Italy.”
All the Eels centre really wants to do is put a smile on the faces of his young nieces and nephews and the Tongan nation, in the hope one day they might not be seen as a tier-two country, although they appear far from it in this World Cup campaign.
“My nephews and nieces are probably the most excited,” he said.
“They’ve all got their Tongan jerseys at home (in Sydney) and it’s pretty cute seeing all of them in their Tongan jerseys. I think they’re more excited than I am.
“Hopefully I get some tries and that will be a bonus to see the kids happy.”
editorial@cairnspost.com.au facebook.com/TheCairnsPost www.cairnspost.com.au twitter.com/TheCairnsPost