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Fired up North Queensland coach Todd Payten said his team were lucky not to be flogged 50-0 by Penrith in a honest post-match rant.
And the new Cowboys mentor defended his decision to reduce Jason Taumalolo’s minutes this season, confirming it’s his long-term strategy to preserve his body for the next seven seasons.
Two 25-minute stints resulted in Taumalolo’s low haul of 55 metres from seven runs on Saturday night, a far cry from last year’s average of 192 metres and 60 minutes a game.
Speaking after their 24-0 lashing, Payten said the former Dally M winner is not intense enough in defence and needs to set a better example to the young forwards in the side.
“He got 55 because we didn’t hold the ball,” Payten said.”
“That’s got nothing to do with his minutes.”
“I don’t care the type of flak I’m going to cop about that.”
“But I’ve said it several times. Jase is contracted here for seven years. If we cook him, 65-75 minutes a game, in three to four years, what value are we going to get out of him?”
“This is a long-term decision about Jase’s health and my ambition to hold onto the job, I guess.”
The extraordinary honesty is the most criticism Taumalolo has copped publicly as one of the biggest names in the NRL.
However, Payten did not lay down the loss at the feet of his co-captain considering he was benched for 30 minutes of it.
The Cowboys’ ball control was deplorable with 18 errors for the game, including basic fundamentals that went wrong.
Ex-Queensland second-rower Coen Hess played 80 minutes for just six runs, 38 metres and two errors, while Jake Clifford and Kyle Feldt also had three errors each.
“It was a bit of concentration, a bit of fatigue. We tackled ourselves to a standstill and, in my opinion, we’re lucky it wasn’t 50-0,” Payten said.
“We’ve got bucketloads of work to do.”
“It was pretty positive at halftime. To give away that sort of possession and field position and only be down 8-0 was a real positive and the players felt that.”
“It was important that we started well in the second half but that wasn’t the case. They rolled down the field pretty easily.”
“We just weren’t good enough. We’re a long way off.”
© AAP
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