Under-fire South Sydney coach Jason Taylor has played down his decision to hook struggling five-eighth John Sutton from the field midway through his team’s humiliating 54-20 defeat to the Wests Tigers.
Sutton has failed to replicate his strong early season form after returning to action following a broken hand sustained in the City v Country clash in May, and had a difficult day at the office as the Tigers’ new-look halfback pairing of Benji Marshall and Tim Moltzen dominated Sutton and Chris Sandow.
Taylor pulled no punches after the game, accusing some of his side’s play of not being up to NRL standards, but said his players were suffering from a lack of confidence which was leading to basic errors.
“Johnny just had a game where he pushed a couple of passes and that caused some problems for us,” Taylor said.
“I think trying too hard was Johnny’s problem tonight, he really can create stuff for us and he was really trying that.
“But in Craig Wing, Issac Luke, Chris Sandow and John Sutton, we have got four players for three positions and I wanted to have Chris back out there. It wasn’t a case of a massive hook for Johnny.
“I thought the other guys were going better than him at the time so I put Chris back on and moved Wingy to five-eighth.”
Taylor admitted he had to do something to stop his side’s alarming slide down the NRL ladder after a promising start to the season that has seen them now lose five successive matches.
“We’ve got to look at ourselves individually and make sure we give everything we’ve got, not look around at someone else and make sure we are putting the work in,” he said.
“It’s my job to look at the individuals and see where we can make changes, but we are not going to make changes for the sake of it.”
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