Toronto chief Brian McDermott admitted to having frank discussions with his props following their poor start to the season – but got the response he wanted in victory over Huddersfield.
The Wolfpack picked up their first win of the season as they defeated Huddersfield in the Challenge Cup, a victory of which the foundations were laid down by his middles.
Their performance came off the back of criticism from McDermott, who revealed he had picked them out for heavy criticism following their heavy defeat to Leeds.
“I went at the front-rowers last week,” he said.
“I rarely speak in so much detail publicly about who I’ve been speaking to, but I don’t mind telling you I went to the front-rowers last week and I don’t think they’ve done anything this year.
“I don’t think the team in general has been really poor but I think my front-rowers have. They’ve played passive, without hit and without punch. After last week’s game it became a bit more colourful the instruction with them, but they responded massively tonight. Mullally, Sidlow, Gadwin Springer in particular, I thought was outstanding.”
Toronto’s win was even more impressive given that McDermott used just one of his four interchanges, spending the whole night swapping one prop for another, leaving Darcy Lussick, Tony Gigot and Blake Wallace on the bench all evening
“Darcy Lussick was named on the bench but was never going to play because he’s not recovered from injury, The other two guys were outside backs and I wasn’t sure where I’d put them on the field, I’m not going to make rotations because they haven’t been used. It wasn’t about who did or didn’t play, it was about getting the win, the only prop I had on the bench kept getting used between those three.”