Wests Tigers will be hoping to trouble the Penrith Panthers when the two sides travel to Bathurst for Saturday night’s contest of the Royce Simmons Cup.
Match: Panthers v Wests Tigers
Round 9 -
home Team
Panthers
9th Position
away Team
Wests Tigers
17th Position
Venue: Carrington Park, Bathurst
Members and fans will fondly remember the joint-venture’s upset victory over Penrith in 2021, before the team was only narrowly defeated by the premiers at CommBank Stadium last season.
Wests Tigers will welcome back centre Brent Naden, who enjoyed a strong start to the year before suffering an AC joint injury on Easter Monday.
Naden’s opposite number Stephen Crichton is coming off his strongest performance of the season and will be hoping to continue his form against Tim Sheens’ side.
For this week’s Friday Focus, we’re zooming in on the battle of the centres ahead of Saturday’s Western Sydney derby.
Before suffering his shoulder injury against the Eels, Brent Naden was starting to put together a strong run of form with two tries in his past three appearances.
In his three 80-minute performances this season, the Wellington-born outside back has averaged over 169 running metres per game and accumulated 11 tackle busts.
Naden is more familiar than most with Ivan Cleary’s coaching philosophy, given that the Indigenous All Star started his NRL career at the foot of the mountains in 2019.
In his three seasons at Penrith, Naden played 27 games alongside Stephen Crichton but will be hoping to get the better of his former teammate when they go head-to-head at Carrington Park.
In order to do so, Wests Tigers will have to shut down Crichton, who is coming off a hat-trick in Penrith’s Round 8 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
The Bulldogs-bound centre has been in strong try scoring form to start 2023 and currently only sits behind Campbell Graham and Kotoni Staggs for tries scored by centres.
Crichton has not played against Wests Tigers since the two teams met in Queensland during the COVID-impacted season of 2021, but the star centre has three tries against the joint-venture in his two previous matches against the club.
With doubt surrounding Nathan Cleary’s fitness for the match, the Samoan international may be asked to assume the goal kicking duties once again as he leads his side’s potent attack into battle.
