Wests Tigers Head Coach Ivan Cleary says Sunday’s thrilling come-from-behind win over the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles was only possible thanks to David Nofoaluma’s two intercepts on fullback Tom Trbojevic to start the second half.
Trailing 20-6 at the break, Wests Tigers would post their biggest comeback win in over seven years with Malakai Watene-Zelezniak crossing in the 79th minute, but the Coach said the game changed on Nofoaluma’s two intercepts within five minutes of each other — putting Wests Tigers on the attack and back in to the contest with two quick tries.
“They were really big moments for us,” Cleary said of Nofoaluma’s intercepts.
“It’s fair to say that our right edge defence has had plenty of tries go down there in the last few years and David Nofoaluma has been working really hard with [Assistant Coach] Andrew Webster in particular in regards to his positional play in defence.
“We spoke about it during the week that Tom Trbojevic likes the long ball and he’s really good at it, and I thought David making those two players really changed the game.
“It was a couple of play that didn’t just happen — they’ve been worked on for a while.
“I think teams actually come with a plan to try and expose something that’s been exposed in the past, so it’s definitely a win for David that one."
Be there for our final Campbelltown game of season 2017 as we take on the North Queensland Cowboys on August 25!
