Moore named as Northern Pride’s injured cohort closes in on return

Moore will immediately plug a gap in the Pride’s leftedge defence, an area exposed by the Capras in a 34-10 demolition job last week.

“He’s probably our best wrestler,” Williams said. “He defends really well.

“When it becomes a tight tussle, his ability to manoeuvre his body weight into a position where he can make tackles is very good. “He’s worked his way back.” Williams will put a key focus on defence this week after the Capras punched holes at will, in particular through the first half.

The Pride missed 41 tackles to the Capras’ 14 on Saturday night, while getting only 41 per cent of possession.

Those factors combined for a rough night in Rockhampton, but Williams said it had more to do with communication than contact. And he knows how to address the issue.

“Our missed tackles or ineffective tackles were from situations where we didn’t communicate too well,” Williams said.

“I thought our contact at times was very good but we were a bit scrappy when we wanted to get the second or third man in.

“That’s an area we need to really clean up in regards to roles and responsibilities.

“That’s something we’ll work on in the next few days with how effective we can be with one person, but also including a couple more so we get that peel right.

“That’s where they dominated us.

“We’d get two or three in the tackle but when we went to peel off, it wasn’t controlled … it was a very erratic peel.

“That’s an area that we need to focus on, and that comes back to communication and talking to each other, and knowing their roles.”

Winger Robert Derby has been named on the wing, with Bernard Lewis 18th man as he recovered from injury.

Williams conceded Lewis was a 50-50 chance of playing, though the heavy rain hadn’t helped his return to play timeline.

“Bernard Lewis is still 50-50 at the moment,” Williams said.

“Heavy conditions and the track out there is probably not helping him with his running.

“We’re being a bit careful with that.”

A relieved Williams said forwards Tom McGrath and Joey Ratu and winger William Partridge are also due to return in the next few weeks.

Saturday’s game will kick off at 3pm.