How the Walker deal fell apart… and left Roosters supremo teary<\/a><\/p>\nIt led to four-time premiership-winning coach Trent Robinson taking aim at the big men.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia got outmuscled by Fiji and they did by New Zealand last week,\u201d he said in commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what halves pair you play \u2026 can they win the forward battle? Can they create enough of a platform?<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia needs to muscle up more than what they did in the first two Tests. They need to get a hell of a lot better there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were losing in the 60th minute, not just in the 20th minute. Fiji outmuscled them in how they carried the ball and how they tackled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kangaroos back-rower Liam Martin is one to take things personally out on the field, but he acknowledged to Foxsports.com.au on Monday that the Aussies had yet to hit top gear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that we haven\u2019t played our best game, but the really exciting thing is we know we\u2019ve got so much improvement in us, so if we bring our best game, I don\u2019t think anyone can match us,\u201d Martin said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have that mentality of taking it to them and when people criticise you and say that you know they\u2019ve got it over you. We take it pretty personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liam Martin is tackled against New Zealand three weeks ago.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Martin said he wouldn\u2019t want to be lining up with anyone else other than Pat Carrigan, Tino Fa\u2019asuamaleaui, Lindsay Smith and Harry Grant when they take on Samoa on Sunday night at Allianz Stadium in Sydney.<\/p>\n
Smith, Martin\u2019s Penrith teammate, told Foxsports.com.au that he and his fellow forwards have tried not to listen to the outside noise but did defend the influence of the pack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s obviously things we can work on as a team and as a pack, but if you look back at both those games, you don\u2019t win games of footy without your forward pack and we won both of them,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely areas we need to be better as a team and as a pack, but I think we\u2019re tracking in the right direction and I can\u2019t wait for the challenge ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith warned his fellow forwards that they needed to stay calm when they run into the likes of Junior Paulo, Francis Molo, Jermaine McEwen, Francis Manuleleua and co.<\/p>\n
And over-reaction to the criticism could spell trouble. <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess you\u2019ve got to take your motivation where you can and that can add a little bit to the fire, but it\u2019s also a fine line with getting too emotional at times,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like you\u2019ve got to take that challenge head-on each and every week as a forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always you versus your opposition. You\u2019ve got a big part to play in terms of how the team goes, so there\u2019s definitely some things you\u2019ve got to take personally.\u201d <\/p>\n
Carrigan has been playing front-row during the tournament but is more of a lock, which is where he plays at Brisbane.<\/p>\n
He only ran for 100m or more, once in three games this tournament and admitted it was very physical out there, even against the minnows like Fiji and the Cook Islands. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we\u2019re going to have to be on,\u201d Carrigan said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to have an opinion of you and it is what it is, but I love playing with this group of boys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no egos here and there\u2019s just a willingness to do whatever job you need to do for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addo-Carr ‘B’ sample comes back negative | 00:35<\/p>\n
Grant is the best hooker in the game but his effectiveness is dulled when his forwards aren\u2019t dominating the middle.<\/p>\n
It makes it difficult for him to run out of dummy half and create trouble. He only had two runs for just 11m against New Zealand and four runs against the Cook Islands. <\/p>\n
He said the pack took a step in the right direction against the Cook Islands but knows the Samoans present a whole different challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s got an opinion these days, and I think internally I know what this forward pack\u2019s capable of,\u201d Grant said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know what we stand for as a forward pack and it\u2019s just about showing that week in, week out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty appreciative as a dummy half with the guys I\u2019ve got around me. I know how much work they get through, physically.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a pack of forwards is criticised for losing the physical battle in the middle, they take it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-950519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}