Brad Arthur declares Parramatta Eels still Auckland Nines champions despite title being stripped
THE record books suggest otherwise but Parramatta coach Brad Arthur says the Eels will head to the Auckland Nines this weekend as defending champions.
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THEY were stripped of the title due to salary cap rorts but coach Brad Arthur has declared Parramatta will head to the Auckland Nines this weekend as defending champions.
Arthur said the Eels still considered themselves titleholders of the Nines, even though the record books proclaim they had their 2016 crown taken away for cheating the salary cap.
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“We don’t feel like it was taken off us,” Arthur told The Daily Telegraph.
“You can’t take away the games that were played, you can’t take away the feelings and the excitement of when it all happened. That still lives with us.
“As far as we are concerned we followed the rules the same as everyone else with selection and we are doing the same again this year. Everything that we do in a Parramatta jersey we want to try and be at our best.”
It’s why Arthur has named a strong squad for this weekend’s two-day tournament, including big names Corey Norman and Semi Radradra.
“We’ve probably got a better team than what we fielded last year,” he said.
“That’s because we’ve got a full complement of 25 players in our top 25 for the first time.
“We’ve got Norman, Bevan French, Clint Gutherson, Josh Hoffman and Semi all going.
“The rules are you’ve got to send 12 of your top 25. It’s the same as last year when we followed the rules.
“But you need a lot of luck in these games and we got a bit of luck last year.
“In the second game with 30 seconds to go we scored to win, but if we lose that game we were out. You’ve just got to manage the players the best you can if someone gets a niggling injury.
“You definitely don’t take any risks, because you’ve got 18 players. If you do get a couple of injuries you just have to pull them out.”
French scored eight tries in six games at last year’s Nines to announce himself as a genuine try scoring threat.
This time around, Arthur is hoping for big things from former Titans utility Josh Hoffman.
“Josh has trained really well,” he said. “He has had to manage his loads early in the piece, but he has become very resilient to our training and his competitiveness is a big plus for us.
“He and Gutherson are both the same. They both compete, scrap and fight over anything and they are really competitive players.
“I think Hoffman is going to be good for us.”
Originally published as Brad Arthur declares Parramatta Eels still Auckland Nines champions despite title being stripped
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