Doueihi may shift to No.1

TIM Sheens has hinted that Adam Doueihi could spend a lot more time at fullback after the Lebanese playmaker switched positions late in the game to spark what had been an otherwise flat attack.

The Tigers were down 26-6 when Sheens reshuffled his backline by taking David Nofoaluma off, with Charlie Staines going to the right wing, Doueihi switching to fullback and Brandon Wakeham coming on in the halves.

It proved a masterstroke, with three long-range tries in the space of four minutes as the Tigers threatened an unlikely comeback, but the charge fell just short with the Bulldogs holding on for a 26-22 win.

Sheens was asked about the move three times in his press conference, and while he didn’t want to address it initially, he revealed that Wakeham and Luke Brooks had worked together all week at training, which is why he wanted to see them in action.

It will be interesting to see what the team list looks like on Tuesday, with regular fullback Daine Laurie expected to miss a few more weeks through injury.

“I don’t want to make any call on that at the moment,” Sheens replied when asked about the switch for the first time.

“I don’t want to talk about it, thank you. I’m not going to justify what I did.

“We practised that all week. Adam didn’t train all week except for the captain’s run, so it was always looking better with the two boys who played together.

“Things weren’t working for us, so I pushed Adam back there. He ended up with cramps so I’m not saying he was a superstar, but he settles us down a bit out the back and he dominates the call, so he might get a bit more time there.” It took more than an hour for the Tigers to register their first line break, and David Klemmer’s burst through the middle seemed to click them into gear.