Tino Fa'asuamaleaui says he's ready to play the full 80 minutes of State of Origin II as Queensland mull the novel predicament of how to replace Reuben Cotter. Debutant Cotter was a surprise starter for the game one victory in Sydney but justified coach Billy Slater's faith with a 49-tackle, 80-minute effort at lock in a game played at blinding speed. "I reckon I can do it," he told AAP. "Reubs worked so hard and was so good and we are a different sort of style of player, but we'll work hard for each other in the middle there and make up for it." Fa'asuamaleaui didn't see it as his sole responsibility to shut down Yeo, instead backing the pack to do that. "That's a whole-team thing but for me it's just 'keep it the same, keep it simple'," he said. "What I do best is run as hard as I can and tackle as hard as I can; that's just me." "He offers us so much, Papa is like a bit of a father figure to us and I guess we do have a bit of a gang here," he said. "We're very close and Papa is great at setting the tone during the week, making sure we don't overdo it and that we're just ready to go at 5.50pm (local time) on Sunday."
No comments:
Post a Comment