Knights halves set to play pain game
continue their winning run after turning the tide against defending premiers Cronulla.
Gold Coast meet the Knights at Cbus Super Stadium this afternoon, with Lamb and Feeney likely to have to do a mountain of defence as the Titans forwards work them over.
Young gun Lamb has become the main man at the Knights after Jarrod Mullen’s drug ban and Trent Hodkinson’s poor form, while Gold Coast product Feeney earns his first start this season in a revamped combination.
“I think they’re up and coming halves and Nathan Brown’s put some faith in them and they’re the players of the future for the club now that Mullen’s gone and there’s a bit of a changing of the guard there,’’ Henry said.
“They’re a team that’s been competitive and their young halves are learning.”
But Henry stopped short of saying the pair would be targeted.
“You’ll find those guys defensively regardless, all halves get targeted,” Henry said.
“Kane (Elgey) gets a fair share of the back-rowers running at him as well and so does Ash (Taylor).
“It’s just got to be something that we take advantage of. But Lamb’s been making his tackles as well and we don’t overly target the halves.”
Lamb is averaging 17 tackles a match, with 2.6 misses, while Feeney is relatively untested after six NRL games.
Titans captain Ryan James said it was great to see Feeney – a fellow Palm Beach Currumbin graduate – playing in the NRL. But he will have little sympathy for the 22-yearold this afternoon.
“Hopefully (we can put them off),” James said.
“It seems that everyone’s been doing that to us, we’ve got some young halves as well. We haven’t really talked about it too much but hopefully we can throw our backrowers into their forwards more often than not.”
The Titans main concern will be to improve their defensive record at Cbus after leaking 120 points at an average of 30 per game this season.
“We need to be defending like we defended last week against a good side and if we can do that, we’re in the game of football,” Henry said.
“That’s an area we’re always working on and we want to be a better defensive side.”
Henry said it was partly about having consistency around the team and gaining players like Nathan Peats, Chris McQueen, Kevin Proctor, Konrad Hurrell and Jarryd Hayne back was a boost.
“Those players get the job done on a consistent basis,” he said.