{"id":319471,"date":"2026-03-08T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319471\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T17:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:39:26","slug":"roosters-forwards-slammed-for-display-against-warriors-dominated-what-happened-angus-crichton-spencer-leniu-injury-saturday-league-kick-off-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319471\/","title":{"rendered":"Roosters forwards slammed for display against Warriors, dominated, what happened, Angus Crichton, Spencer Leniu injury, Saturday League Kick Off, news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Roosters\u2019 forwards have been urged to lift their form after they were monstered by the hulking Warriors pack in a shock 42-18 loss in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the spotlight was on the brand new halves pairing of Sam Walker and Daly Cherry-Evans in what was the latter\u2019s debut for the club, one former NRL star believes there should be more heat directed at the Roosters\u2019 pack.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WHAT&#8217;S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-premiership\/nrl-2026-tommy-talau-suffers-knee-injury-in-nsw-cup-spencer-leniu-hamstring-injury-update\/news-story\/b65a976baad461c2c32da28473f62057\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">pre-game injury to Spencer Leniu<\/a> didn\u2019t help, but even so, only one forward (Naufahu Whyte \u2013 169) going over 100 metres isn\u2019t a good look. <\/p>\n<p>The Warriors\u2019 forwards led by James Fisher-Harris and Jackson Ford outgained the Roosters\u2019 pack 819 running metres to 544. <\/p>\n<p>Saturday League Kick Off host and former NRL winger Denan Kemp says it\u2019s an early season concern that has to be addressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s actually been something that I\u2019ve thought when looking at the Roosters\u2019 roster heading into the season and that\u2019s questions around the forward pack,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, they were without Spencer Leniu but the Warriors were missing Mitch Barnett so it\u2019s not like they weren\u2019t missing someone either.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat (the forward pack) was actually my key watch for the game going in. Granted, it was more the discipline that cost the Roosters forwards those metres.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at this forward pack right now, on paper their names have top tier players, but are they in the form of top tier players?<\/p>\n<p>Angus Crichton of the Roosters is tackled during the round one NRL match between Warriors and Sydney Roosters (Photo by Phil Walter\/Getty Images).Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhyte is a top tier front rower but Angus Crichton was pretty quiet last year and then you\u2019ve got Radley who is suspended, Nat Butcher is solid but I wouldn\u2019t say he\u2019s a top tier edge forward. You\u2019ve got a young guy in Blake Steep at lock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you actually break their pack down, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a top four forward pack right now and I think people are getting caught up in some of the names rather than where they\u2019re at form wise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whyte was enormous, amassing his 169 metres from 17 runs as he continues his upward spiral but rep players like Crichton and Lindsay Collins were underwhelming.<\/p>\n<p>Expected to step up in Leniu\u2019s absence, Collins ran for just 36 metres in 61 minutes of action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Roosters\u2019 forwards have been urged to lift their form after they were monstered by the hulking Warriors&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2652,8059,19546,172860,9499,42,79708,172858,21097,111,8049,43,2659,161348,172857,101722,172859,2654,40,38,172861,172855,41,39,2646,172856],"class_list":{"0":"post-319471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","9":"tag-daly-cherry-evans","10":"tag-daniel-nuttall","11":"tag-denan-kemp","12":"tag-getty-images-inc","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-james-tedesco","15":"tag-lindsay-collins","16":"tag-mitch-barnett","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-new-zealand-warriors","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-oceania","21":"tag-rep-players","22":"tag-roster-heading","23":"tag-sam-walker","24":"tag-season-concern","25":"tag-sydney-roosters","26":"tag-top-news","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-top-tier","29":"tag-top-tier-players","30":"tag-topnews","31":"tag-topstories","32":"tag-trent-robinson","33":"tag-young-guy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}