The first two words in the paragraph you quoted were 'I assume'. So yes, I don't know for sure why he made the decision just like nobody else does because neither I, nor they, are Adrian Lam. However, who do you think the head coach is going to get his information from regarding injuries to players and the risks? Presumably it's the medical staff the club is paid to employ. Given the club didn't risk certain players on the ipitch when Wane was in charge, and the new head coach has done the same thing with the same reasoning, it's not beyond belief that other people might have an input.DaveO wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2019 8:03 pm And it backfired pretty much every time then as well. The point here is though we already had a weakened side and Lam chose to make it even weaker in the area we had injuries. Idiotic.
In any case this idea it’s risking players on plastic is bollocks in my view. I have never agreed with it. If it’s not safe for one player it’s not safe for them all. It’s a lame excuse IM
You just made all that up so you could agree with yourself in the last sentence. You have no idea why he did it and who did or didn’t have any input. All we do know is we were three forwards down before Lam decided to make it four and the reason given was the plastic pitch not injury.
I didn’t know Marshall was ill and it is probably unfair of Lam to put such blame on Escare but it begs the question if Marshall was fit, where was Lam going to play Escare? He clearly was intending to so unless he was going to copy Wane with the “switcheroo” I have no idea where he fits in.
He also didn't make the team weaker in the area we had injuries. We had Clubb, Navarrete, Bullock, Tautai and Partington in the front row and O'Loughlin also making up the middles. It was the back row that we had issues with since Greenwood and Hamlin were likely to play there and missed out.
While I do think the front row is far too weak without Flower, it's not like there isn't previous cause for concern with artificial pitches. Burgess, Shorrocks and Gregson have all suffered very serious injuries on the artificial pitch in recent years. They had known knee/ankle problems in the past but were fully fit at the time.
Post match the suggestion does seem to be that the props played well though, so while I think we miss Flower in any game, it sounds like it was the outside backs and the halves that let us down and that the front row put in an improved performance.
Phil Wilkinson from the WEP said Escare was originally on the bench, which suggests either coming on at fullback, or possibly more likely to replace Sammut in the halves. However, that would have meant he was planning to go into that game with Leuluai and Escare on the bench and only two forwards, which sounds like a risk.
