Parramatta Eels interim coach Trent Barrett has revealed the reasons behind several changes for the team during their loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, while also confirming they could have three players set to return next week.
In the club’s first game without Brad Arthur, the Eels came up well short against the Rabbitohs after being blown out of the water during the opening exchanges of the game.
While the Eels had some pleasing moments, it was a handful of changes Barrett made that caught the attention of fans, with Junior Paulo starting, Shaun Lane playing in the middle third and Kelma Tuilagi receiving more minutes.
Barrett felt it was down to experience for Paulo, and getting Lane more involved in the game.
“Junior is one of our best players. We though we needed him to start, particularly after the week we had. We wanted our most experienced players out there,” Barrett said during his post-game press conference.
“Shaun Lane – we were struggling to get him involved in the game. We also needed to give Kelma Tuilagi some more time, and I thought he was good too. He is still only young Kelma, but he is a damaging player and I thought Laney was really good through the middle third so it gives us something to think about next week.”
Lane, who played 42 minutes, finished the game with only 64 metres, but they came from six impactful runs while he also didn’t miss a single tackle in a performance that let South Sydney score 42 points.
Not helping the Eels was the late withdrawal of centre Will Penisini due to an infection. Barrett revealed he had been in hospital most of the week, but was a chance to play next week, while Mitchell Moses and Clint Gutherson were also due to return, with possession and fixing errors the keys for Parramatta heading into next weekend against the Cronulla Sharks.
“We are also a big chance of getting Mitch, Gutho and Will back which is going to help,” Barrett added.
“If we can attack like we did, but we obviously have to fix up a few things. Possession is the key, I think we only had 29 per cent after half an hour and that’s impossible.
“If we can fix a few things up, we are going to be right in the fight.
“They [Gutherson and Moses] both ran well yesterday. I’ll name them [for next week] and we are very confident they will both play. Will Penisini has been in hospital most of the week so will be touch and go given the short turnaround, but he is a lot better this week so will see how we go.”
Parramatta has just a five-day turnaround before clashing with Cronulla.