Trent Robinson, the Roosters’ coach, says his team did not “adapt” to James Tedesco’s late scratching in the heartbreaking 18-16 loss to the Cowboys. Tedesco was pulled into the Blues’ squad for Game 1 on Saturday night after Dylan Edwards suffered a quad injury that kept him out of the Origin opener. It caused problems for the Roosters, who had to move Joey Manu to fullback and promote Michael Jennings to the starting lineup.
The Roosters trained all week with Tedesco at fullback and without five-eighth Luke Keary, who was in Blues camp as standby for Nicho Hynes.
Robinson said Manu and the entire spine “wasn’t good enough”.
“I mean Joey didn’t have his best night tonight. He was way off what his quality is and he’s usually not like that,” Robinson said.
“I expect us to be a team that can adapt with what happens but we just didn’t nail Kez (Keary) not being there and then Joey moving (to fullback)
“Our spine wasn’t good enough tonight as a whole, along with other players.
“I don’t think that should be based on a week, I expect us to go and adapt, but we didn’t.
