Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has described his forward pack as underrated as the premiership favourites attempt to win through to the grand final without enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
The Roosters have been tagged as the team to beat all year but were struck a big blow after influential front-rower Waerea-Hargreaves was suspended for Saturday’s preliminary final against Melbourne for tripping.
A lot has been made of the Roosters’ winning percentage of 44 per cent when the Kiwis Test prop isn’t in their line-up – a strike which rises to 77 per cent when he is playing.
His absence will be keenly felt given the Roosters are faced with having to stop Storm pair Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Jesse Bromwich, who were at their damaging best in last week’s win over Parramatta and laid the early platform.
Siosiua Taukeiaho has taken Waerea-Hargreaves’ spot in the starting front-row and he and Isaac Liu will be tasked with holding down the middle of the field along with lock Victor Radley.
Robinson argued that his forwards weren’t given due credit for their contribution this year and urged his big men to prove the doubters wrong.
“Most of the year people haven’t talked about our forward pack, they haven’t mentioned it once at all,” Robinson said.
“They’ve often mentioned our backline or our halves but they don’t mention our forwards.
“They mention opposition forward packs a lot.
“All they can do is go out there and get that challenge on.”