New South Wales Coach, Laurie Daley, is looking forward to seeing the development of his side’s young spine in Game II of the 2016 Origin Series at Suncorp Stadium, after sticking with the combination when announcing his team yesterday (Monday).
Rabbitohs halfback, Adam Reynolds, will wear the number seven jersey as part of a fresh spine that will also include the likes of James Maloney, Matt Moylan and Robbie Farah – a combination that went down to the vastly experienced Queenslanders by just two points in Game I.
But Daley knows that there’s plenty of improvement left in his team and his team’s spine.
“We were a little bit rusty in Game I, and that was off the back of our one, seven and nine having their first games together,” said Daley.
“Queensland have got the advantage of just rolling into camp – they’ve played together so many years in a row and it just flows like clock-work.
“For us, we wanted to give these guys another opportunity to build on what they showed us in Game I.
“(The halves) combined really well – we had a new seven, six and one, and most coaches will tell you that when you’re putting a spine together it takes a bit of time,” said Daley following the opening game of the Series.
“But they combined really well and I’m happy with the way they went. Again, they’ll be better in Game II for it.
“I thought they played well. It’s always difficult in your first Origin game coming up against a great team. They’ll get better.”
Daley acknowledged that while pleased with his team’s Game I effort, there are many opportunities for improvement – a prospect that has the former Test and Origin star excited.
“We were happy with some things we did – we weren’t happy with some of the other things we did,” said Daley.
“We’ve just got to improve certain areas and I’m confident we can do that. We saw enough in Game I to say that we’re going to be a better team in Game II and the improvement will come.
“They (the team) understand each other a little bit better, they know how we want to play and the style of football we want to play and how we go about it, so you’d like to think they’ll be better for it in Game II, and they’ll need to be because going into Queensland – it’s always difficult.
“I had confidence in this squad to start with – there’s no reason to change, We were beaten by two points and we’ve got some improvement left in us.”
Stay tuned to Rabbitohs.com.au for more news about your Rabbitohs that are in Origin camp.
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