Sea Eagles enforcer doesn’t ‘give a rats’ what rivals think about Manly forwards
RIVAL teams can think what the like about the Sea Eagles pack, it doesn’t bother the team’s enforcer Marty Taupau.
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RIVAL teams can think what the like about the Sea Eagles pack, it doesn’t bother the team’s enforcer Marty Taupau.
“To be honest I haven’t really heard much, but also I really don’t give rat’s a***,” Taupau said ahead of Thursday’s game against the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium.
“They are not going to change the way we play or anything on the back of other people’s opinions.
“I guess they all have their opinions on us, but for us we’ve just got to keep doing what we do and bring our A game and bring it forward to whoever we are playing.”
And he showdown with the massive Bulldogs pack, including the in-form 122kg Sam Kasiano, gives the Sea Eagles the chance to enhance their credentials.
“You’ve always got to test yourself every week,” Taupau said.
“It’s always nice to play against the big boys here, you’ve got Sammy, you’ve got James Graham and David Klemmer as well who is an Origin player.
“You can’t fault them for the big boys and the skills that they have.
“We are well aware of what they can bring as a team and have a few individuals there that when at the top of their game are very devastating.”
It is the kind of challenge that the competitive Taupau always looks forward to.
“I think everyone especially in our forward pack takes it personally, we take it all upon ourselves to create an opportunity for our halves, building that foundation for the rest of the team to thrive on the back of that,” he said.
“We all feed off each other as well.”
Despite Friday night’s 10-9 loss to Parramatta which made Manly’s hopes of getting into the finals even harder, Taupau said the team remains really positive.
“I guess we just shot ourselves in the foot, there was a lot of dropped ball, a lot of penalties,” he said.
“We know what we need to improve and especially with the short turnaround we’ve got to be very sharp come Thursday.”
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