Have not been anti DCE, but he hasn't set the world on fire early. He will come good & is a top shelf player. Not 1 for excuses & tonight after grinding back into the contest....the poor start came back to haunt Manly in the end. The player who was so sorely missed in a game an angry pumped up Souths were always going to come out blazing in the ruck, was Jake T. He would have had a big hand in clogging those early yards that gave Souths momentum. Everyone raved so much about missing DCE, but the main loss in this particular match was the games number 1 defender....Jake.....without the head start have no doubt we get the 2 points.
He would have scored that one under the posts that Nate missed. Jake goes straight to ground. Massive blow though
Apparently if last nights game was Sunday or Monday he would have been ok to play. So I'd expect him back against NZ next week with Lussick to the bench.
Now normally I don't have a high opinion of journalists, especially those from RLW who leave a lot to be desired at times, but even they said in their Five Things that had Jake been there, McInnes would not have scored 2 soft tries up the middle.
I think Barrett's hand was forced by the consecutive 5 day turn arounds and that he has to rest Jake if he was not fit. To allow the vermin 3 soft tries like that was criminal and that put us right on the back foot. The warriors game will be even harder I suspect and having Jake back will be a big boost.
If either Jake or DCE play we win. We needed 1 more try in attack or to save one in defense. They would have both offered about 2 IMO. Jake being out is why our odds blew out last minute, the bookies didn't give us a chance and in the end we lost by 1try or 2 field goals
