Gardiner’s worry for the Tigers with Luai’s likely inclusion

Samoa coach Ben Gardiner has expressed some concern about the Wests Tigers with the expected inclusion of Jarome Luai into the starting 13.

After losing to South Sydney in Round 3 and Luai suffering an MCL injury, Jock Madden was chucked into the starting five-eighth role.

In the three games he started at No. 6, the Tigers have been undefeated, with the 26-year-old playing an important role in each match.

With Luai’s expected to return this week, this will likely see him take up Madden’s spot at five-eighth.

While the addition of Luai will provide a boost to the starting 13, Gardiner wonders whether it will be Adam Doueihi or Luai taking up the first receiver role within the side.

“That’s a hard thing,” Gardiner explained on SEN’s Front Office with Vossy.

“Cause I think in the first few games, like, they do have Doueihi and Luai who are six style players. They're used to playing second receiver.

“So, what Jock has been able to do is he's been able to just be that first receiver (and) give Doueihi some space.

“I wonder who's going to do that now, though?

“That's probably a challenge that they were presented with at the start of the year.

“And Doueihi went in to play most of that first receiver role, so that Jarome could get a little bit wider and use his skill and his footwork.

“So they're gonna have to talk about this week. Whether they use a bit more of the lock playing with the ball (to) potentially get both of them a little bit wider.

“But (with) the way that they're going, they're very confident, so I'm sure that they'll come up with a plan to get those guys in the space.”

They’ll next feature on Saturday night when they take on the Brisbane Broncos at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.

That match kicks off from 7:35pm AEST with SEN having live coverage of the match through Broncos Radio.

That can be heard on SENQ, SENTrack Brisbane and on the SEN app from 7:20pm.