Tigers didn’t need Farah in defeating the Dragons, but Coach Taylor still has issues to address

The Wests Tigers have defeated the St George Illwarra Dragons 25-12 at the ANZ Stadium last Sunday without Robbie Farah. But even with the win, Tigers Coach Jason Taylor still has some issues to deal with.

According to the Tigers official website, Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks led the team during the win, with Moses playing sharp offence and solid defence, especially in the second half. With the tigers up by 10 at the beginning of the second half, Moses almost scored the first points of the second half when he sliced through the defence on his own 40-metre line in the 52^nd minute.

But it was stopped, as the Dragons’ defence held Kyle Lovett out. Moses, though, was not yet done as he made a huge play again, kicking a 40/20 to put the Tigers back on the attack. Moses continued his brilliance, as he gave a great offload to Josh Aloiai, who crashed on his first NRL try.

In the final stages of the match, Moses showed his class by slotting over a drop goal to make the final score 25-12. The win showed that Taylor’s decision to put Farah to reserve grade appeared to be the correct one.

However, the team still need to address some issues, especially if it wants to make the finals.

Foxsports reports that the combination of Dene Halatau, Jordan Rankin and Joel Edwards playing in makeshift dummy half roles is not enough for the Tigers to achieve their goals. Some believe that for Taylor to keep his job, the Tigers will need to reach the finals or at least give the top eight a good shake up.

The NRL Commentator for Foxsports, Jimmy Smith said that the Tigers play seemed “really clunky.”

“We can assume that Robbie Farah’s not going to be back into the 17 at any stage after what he said yesterday but I just didn’t think that looked smooth with what they were doing there with Rankin and what they ended up doing defensively,” he said.

Rankin came off his wing during the Tigers’ attack but was unable to impress with his service to the halves. Halatau, on the other hand, played a mix of positions but was often in the back row, while Edwards played just 32 minutes and barely spent any time at dummy half.

The combination will have to improve in the Tigers' next games for the team to achieve its goals.