Wests Tigers star Luke Brooks saluted the performance of Jackson Hastings who capped his return to the side with a last-minute field goal to defeat the Parramatta Eels on Easter Monday.
The Tigers are priced at 18/1 to finish in the top eight of the NRL this season and will be hoping their first win of the season can spark a revival.
Huge win
The victory at CommBank Stadium against an in-form Eels side is huge for the under-pressure Tigers.
They had lost their first five games of the season and no-one gave them a hope heading in to the game. However a switch in the halves proved to be crucial.
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Hastings was back from suspension and took the No.7 jersey which took the pressure off Brooks who switched to five-eighth. It was a move that paid off and Brooks had plenty of praise for Hastings after the game.
“Tough start (to the year) but coming to the game I felt like there was a lot of pressure off me moving to the six jersey and having Jacko steer the ship,” Brooks said.
“I thought he played really well and just allowed me to play my game. Our attack has been pretty poor the last couple of weeks and I think Jacko coming into the side steering the ship really helped us. He directed the slide and that just allowed me and Daine (Laurie) to play off the back.”
Onwards and upwards
Hastings could not hide his delight after the game and is now hoping the Tigers can kick on for the rest of the season.
“These are the games you want to play in, the big games, and as a club we need to keep pushing to play in those big games towards the end of the year,” he told reporters.
