The Sydney Roosters five-eighth James Maloney has vowed to ease the load on halves partner Mitchell Pearce when the team faces the Penrith Panthers at Pepper Stadium on Saturday night, writes northernstar.com.
“Stand-off half” or “Five-eighth” is one of the positions in a rugby league football team. They wear jersey number 6, and are one of the two “half backs” on a rugby team, writes Wikipedia. In this case, Maloney’s half-back partner is Mitchell Pearce.
Maloney, bound for the South African Sharks next year, has played three Origins for the Blues (a New Zealand team), so he knows the pressure Mitchell Pearce will be under backing up from last night’s game in Brisbane.
With Boyd Cordner, Aidan Guerra and Michael Jennings also set to back up after playing all three Origins, Maloney added the whole team had to lift.
“I’ll try and take a little bit of the workload off him (Pearce) this weekend but other than that it’s all the same,” Maloney told reporters. “Obviously to back up is tough on everyone that has to do it too. All of us other boys are planning to make it a little bit easier for them.”
The Roosters have won their past three games against the Warriors, Dragons and Gold Coast, writes northernstar.com.