Brisbane centre James Roberts ruled out of Broncos’ clash with Melbourne Storm
THE Broncos have copped a blow ahead of Sunday’s clash with the Storm, after star centre James Roberts was ruled out with Achilles soreness.
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THE Broncos have copped a blow ahead of Sunday’s clash with the Storm, after star centre James Roberts was ruled out with Achilles soreness.
Roberts, who made his NSW debut on Wednesday night, has been struggling with the Achilles problem in recent weeks and failed to train with his team at Red Hill on Saturday.
Given the turnaround after Origin, coach Wayne Bennett has decided to rest his star back.
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Bennett’s other Origin players in Andrew McCullough, Josh McGuire and Anthony Milford all trained, however there was concern for McGuire, who finished Saturday’s session early.
Origin I was McGuire’s first game back after six weeks out through an ankle injury, but Bennett said he was certain the Queensland forward would be able to back up.
“We won’t play James but he’s not too bad,” Bennett said.
“His Achilles is still pretty sore, so there’s not much point just continually putting him under pressure. He needs a weekend off.
“Josh McGuire will play … (McGuire’s turnaround) is what they do. They train for it, they want to play football.”
Tom Opacic will start in place of Roberts and Sam Tagataese yesterday travelled to Melbourne as 18th man.
Bennett said outside of the loss of Roberts the Broncos will remain unchanged, with young forwards Joe Ofahengaue and Tevita Pangai Jr to come off the bench.
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Alex Glenn will also return from a knee injury and Bennett said he expects his forward pack to be stronger as a result.
“(McGuire and Glenn) bring experience but I’ve left two good players off (the starting side) that have been playing great for us in Tevita and Joe Ofahengaue,” he said.
“It’s nice to think our bench is going to be a bit stronger and these guys can come back and bring what they bring. It gives us a better all round forward pack.”
In a blow for both the Broncos and the Maroons, Bennett also confirmed yesterday that Matt Gillett will be out for at least another month.
Gillett recently had scans on his fractured neck and will not be able to return ahead of Origin II as he originally hoped.
It was expected he would be sidelined for up 12 weeks, but there was a chance he could make an early comeback if the fracture had already healed.
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