James Tedesco’s late scratching from the Roosters side that collapsed to a shock 18-16 defeat to the Cowboys on Sunday has left club powerbrokers less than impressed. Tedesco was called into Blues camp on game day as an injury replacement for Dylan Edwards, who was ruled out of Wednesday night’s State of Origin opener with a quad injury.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson refused to use Tedesco’s late NRL omission as an excuse for his side’s defeat to a struggling Cowboys side that were missing six players due to Origin duty. The Roosters were also missing five Origin stars after their captain was called up late to the Blues squad, having originally been dumped as NSW skipper by coach Michael Maguire and replaced with
But veteran News Corp league journalist Phil Rothfield told The Big Sports Breakfast on Monday that Roosters management were “not happy” with the way the Tedesco situation unfolded and how it left them scrambling to reshuffle their starting side on game day. “Clubs have to give up a lot around State of Origin. (The Cowboys and Roosters) game yesterday was missing 10 players and then Tedesco had to pull out,” Rothfield said.
“They weren’t happy because it happened on game day, they were okay they gave up all the other players a week ago when the teams were announced. They think it might be the difference between winning and losing in a tight football game, Tedesco with his leadership might have held the side together. You can’t blame James for wanting to play, it would have been interesting if he knocked them back and was dirty.”
“But the simplicity of it was that we were happy for James. We all felt for him this week – obviously, Dylan (Edwards) deserved his spot.” Robinson conceded his stand-in No.1 Joey Manu – who has excelled at fullback in place of Tedesco before – had a rare off game against the Cowboys on Sunday. “Joey didn’t have his best night,” Robinson said of Manu’s display on Sunday. “He was way off what his quality is. He’s usually not like that.”
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