Stoic Benji’s Tigers admission amid star spine’s new found freedom

A stoic Benji Marshall has heaped praise on his players in the wake of a dominant victory that came following heavy scrutiny.

A stoic Benji Marshall hopes the Tigers’ 32-6 victory over the Eels will give the press something good to say about his club after three straight wooden spoons.

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Marshall conceded it was a must win game for the Tigers to quiten the noise after a big recruitment drive during the off-season.

“Very important, if we lose that today, then the external pressure builds and just gets louder and louder,” Marshall said.

“We know we’re publicised in the media a lot and talked about quite often, so hopefully it’s off the back of a few good things this week.

“As a coach, I thought those good things were defensive. People talking about our attack or whatever, but defensively is where I needed them today.”

Marshall was aksed if the Tigers of old would have let the Eels back into the game, but he wasn’t interested in looking back and delivered a blunt five-word admission.

“I don’t care about last year,” Marshall said.

Marshall preferred to praise his side’s new defensive resolve, which nearly held the Eels to zero if not for a late try.

“I thought our defensive resolve was probably the biggest thing,” Marshall said.

Jarome Luai and Benji Marshall.

“There were moments there where we made a few errors, but we backed it up with our defence on the try line, particularly our goal line defence. I just thought the energy amongst the team for the whole 80 minutes was where we needed to be.”

The Tigers’ spine looked dangerous in attack in their first game together and Marshall conceded he needed to let them play with more freedom after last week’s loss to the Knights.

“What I was proud of is we asked for a way to play today, and we talked about winning the game early and score the points late,” Marshall said.

“And I thought we adopted that mindset really well, got them into a grind, and then just kept applying pressure.

“And I thought all our spine, our leaders, after last week was a bit scrappy, they combined really well today.

“We’re still tinkering with the way we want to play. I thought last week as a coach I was probably guilty of not letting them play enough, probably trying to play too conservative and then had a good look in the mirror and thought about what our strengths are and having Jarome and Jahreem back to partner with these guys. I thought they would have done a real good job.

“1-6-7-9 and 14 I thought they really got us home this week.

“They’re really clear with the plan. They executed everything we asked for. Sure there are moments we can be better, but it’s their first game as a proper spine, so a lot to build on there.

“We’re not going to get carried away we won one game, so still a bit of improvement there.”

Benji is happy with how his troops bounced back. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Tigers skipper Jarome Luai was pleased with his side’s performance, but knows there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“It was an enjoyable day,” Luai said.

“Like Benji said, we’re finding our style and how we want to play, but that combination is just beginning and we’re going to keep looking forward to growing that throughout the year.

“You’ll see it progress throughout the year. We’re still searching for it, but that’s off the back of hard work and that is our foundation.

“As a spine we do want to play footy, but we want a front load our one per centers for the boys as well.”

Luai admits he hasn’t played with a player with the freedom of halves partner Lachlan Galvin, but believes the Tigers can use it to their advantage.

“Not really, but I think that can be a strength of ours,” Luai said.

“We’re different, but that’s a strength. Everyone’s different, but if I can free him up, give him a bit of space, then you can see him go about his work. He played really well today.”

Luai was captured in a conversation with Eels playmaker Dylan Brown post match, but wouldn’t reveal details of what was said.

“I’m not going to talk about what we spoke about,” Luai said.

“That’s between a mate and a mate, so I’ll leave it at that.”

The Tigers were at their best on Sunday. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

“Jarome is just worried about us at the moment,” Marshall interjected.

“Yeah we’ve got a job to do,” Luai agreed.

“I’ve got a job to do for my team and I wish him nothing but the best, but I’m here, I’m a Tiger, and I’m worried about what we’ve got to do.”

Marshall preferred to talk about his own players, including replacement hooker Tallyn Da Silva, who impressed off the bench.

“He only played 20-odd minutes today, nut I thought they had quality minutes, and his strength is running the footy,” Marshall said.

“When he comes on and they’re tired, that’s what we need him to do. I thought both attack and defence, he was outstanding for us today.

“Given Api is underdone a little bit. I thought he did a real good job putting in there. We’re happy with the way he went.

“Week to week, we’ll see what we need as a team and make the decision on the Tuesday.

“We’ve adopted in the pre-season that everyone can be a leader at some stage in this team.

“You don’t have to be the most vocal or the most experienced. You can lead and I thought Tallyn, we had a camp in the pre-season, he was really good with his leadership, and you have got to help him grow that. He’ll get better, he’s still only a kid.”

Another player to impress was Starford To’a, who had a hand in multiple tries after returning from injury in the centres.

“Really happy with Starford’s performance,” Marshall said.

“He’s a big part of what we want to do this year and he’s got some really good quality out in the centres and it was good to have him back.

“Adam Doueihi as well and we’re singling out players, but I just sat in the sheds there from 1 to 17 and even 18 to 30 this week training the preparation for today was outstanding and then you’ve got to go and execute on the field.

“So we’ve still got some work to do. It’s one win. We’re on from two. We’ve got another big game this week, so it’s about recovering and getting ready for next week and not resting on that.”

Originally published as Stoic Benji’s Tigers admission amid star spine’s new found freedom