Friday Focus: Round 16 vs Storm

The home side will be without prop forward Stefano Utoikamanu for the clash against Melbourne, with the 23-year-old set to make his State of Origin debut on Wednesday night.

In his absence, former Blues prop David Klemmer will lead the hosts into battle as he looks to continue an impressive first season in the orange, black and white.

Klemmer and his peers will have to contend with the likes of Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who is set to join Tui Kamikamica to form a damaging front row pairing for the visitors.

For this week’s Friday Focus, we take a closer look at the battle of the two accomplished heavyweights set to go toe-for-toe on Saturday night.

Since moving to Concord in the off-season, David Klemmer has returned to the destructive form that saw him play fourteen games for his state and make nineteen appearances for Australia.

The former Blues representative is leading the way in several statistical categories, sitting within the top ten players in the league for post contact metres this season.

Klemmer has played every game for Wests Tigers in 2023 and has accumulated the fourth most runs and sixth most running metres amongst all props.

He has also been near-perfect in defence, making 338 tackles and missing just one so far this season.

Klemmer will have to be at his defensive best this week as he faces off with Nelson Asofa-Solomona.

Standing at 200 centimetres and weighing in at 115 kilograms, it is no surprise to see Asofa-Solomona lead all forwards in average tackle busts with 5.6 per game.

The Wellington-born prop was at his best in Melbourne’s convincing Round 15 victory over the Sharks, running for 170 metres with two line-breaks.

Asofa-Solomona has won his past four match-ups against Wests Tigers dating back to 2019, with the Kiwi representative crossing for two tries in his ten appearances against the joint-venture.