Foran keeping faith but says going is tough
Ever since Kieran Foran started playing for the Warriors, he’s talked about how much he’s enjoying it, but even he has to admit that the last couple of weeks have been hard going.
The Warriors have been simply dreadful in the last game and a half, conceding 60 points and scoring just 14.
They are not the performances Warriors fans or Foran were hoping for and he admits it’s been a tough couple of weeks.
‘‘Probably because we know we haven’t played to our standards and this isn’t the expectations we want to set,’’ Foran said.
‘‘We’ve all been rather disappointed in the way things have gone and we’re trying really hard to turn it around.’’
Foran is one of the leaders at the Warriors, his experiences in the NRL make him that and playing at five-eighth he’s one of the keys to the club turning around their fortunes against the Broncos at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday evening.
However, a revival of fortunes won’t solely depend on Foran, or the returning Simon Mannering.
‘‘It’s a collective effort,’’ Foran said.
‘‘We’re all in this together and only ourselves can get ourselves out of it.
‘‘There is still plenty of belief amongst the group, we know we just need to get back in the winners’ circle and that starts this Saturday against Brisbane.’’
Foran said it had been hard to work out exactly what had gone wrong over the past 120 minutes of footy, but they were continuing to search for answers.
‘‘It’s something that we’ve been talking about the last couple of weeks,’’ he said.
‘‘Ever since that second half against Penrith, we’ve been leaking a few points.
‘‘You can’t pinpoint anything exactly that’s causing that, because our defence before that was really solid.
‘‘Some of the best teams in the comp were struggling to break our line. We’ve put it down to a couple of rough weeks. We’re working really hard on our games to try to turn it around and each time we’re taking to the training paddock we’re trying to better ourselves and get more out of ourselves.
‘‘We’ve just got to knuckle down as hard as we can and hopefully we turn the corner on Saturday.’’
As for Mannering, Foran says they should have been able to cope better without him the past couple of weeks, but also acknowledged that the lock is a special kind of player.
‘‘You can’t replace someone like Simon,’’ Foran said.
‘‘His work ethic is phenomenal. So you certainly miss his presence. We’re over the moon that we get him back this weekend.’’
While Foran admits it’s been tough going recently, it’s likely that it’s even more so the case for Warriors captain Roger TuivasaSheck.
His first season as skipper has been a testing one and for the first time this year, he looked to be struggling under that pressure in the 30-14 loss to the Dragons in Hamilton last Friday.
‘‘Roger is a complete professional, he’s our hardest working player on and off the field and I think his effort has been 110 per cent this year,’’ Foran said.
‘‘You certainly can’t knock him for that and collectively as a group we can do more to help him.’’