Marshall: Forwards up to Rabbitohs task

Rookie props Matt Groat and Aaron Woods are more than capable of handling South Sydney‘s monster forward pack when they meet on Sunday, according to stand-in Wests Tigers skipper Benji Marshall.

The Tigers forwards have come in for recent criticism and been labelled ‘soft’, off the back of three consecutive defeats.

But Marshall, who is deputising for suspended skipper Robbie Farah, has faith in the big men up front to handle the likes of Sam Burgess, who he rates as the NRL‘s form forward so far this year.

“We know they are going to try and come through the middle of us and we have been doing a lot of work this week to tighten that up,” said Marshall.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in our forwards that we will do a good job this week.

“I think our young props have been going great. Unfortunately in the past few weeks, they have been criticised of being a bit soft through the middle there but at the same time, we have still got a lot of senior guys in the team.

“Our back row has all played international footy. That’s no excuse. I think we need to start looking out for [Woods and Groat] a bit more.”

Both teams have just one win to their name so far this season and Marshall admits the pressure to come out on top is definitely on.

“Both teams have only won one game so it is not an ideal start,’’ added Marshall.

“Whoever doesn’t win this game will be languishing down the bottom there. We know we have got a big focus on winning this week. If we don’t win, it is not the end of the world but we really do need to.’’