Luke Bailey rejects rumours about Scott Prince – National Rugby League
Luke Bailey, the Gold Coast Titans’ prop, confirmed that the rumours about Scott Prince saying, that the half-back is no more needed by the National Rugby League (NRL) franchise, are untrue because the player is all pumped to snub the source of such misleading
criticism.
According to the widespread rumour on the social networking sites, the Titans want to get rid of the prop because of his ailing performance during 2011. In so many years at the NRL franchise, this has been his worst overall annual performance. He won only
4 out of the total 19 games he played with the Titans and contributed a total of 5 tries to his side.
It shocked everyone that Prince was on the top of his game in 2010 with record 66.7% wins and the very next year, witnessed his career’s lowest. However, it cannot be entirely blamed on him because the Titans also did not have five-eighth throughout the
year. Five players were tried for that position including Capewell, Zillman, Presto, Bird and Beau Henry.
Another factor which may have contributed towards his poor profile is that he sparingly had the ball to himself, which reflected adversely on the scorecard. Titans found difficulty in keeping the ball on the move. Nonetheless, it is expected that he will
regain his lost form in 2012, as he seems desperate for changing the views about himself too.
Bailey also reckons that the player will revert back to his original form. Therefore, while expressing his viewpoint about Prince, he said, “Scotty was not the only bloke who had an off season. There were 25 players who played below par last season so everyone's
in the same boat and everyone's got a chance to redeem themselves. Princey's been working really hard. He looks fresh. On his time trials, he's up there with most of the backs and I can see he's pretty hungry.”
Apart from that, it was an injury prone year for Titans where Nathan Friend, Mat Rogers, Ash Harrison and Anthony Laffranchi had picked up injuries. It took its toll on their coach, John Cartwright, who had a tough time looking for perfect replacements for
the missing talent. It appears that this had affected Prince’s performance majorly, because it built up pressure on him.
“It's hard to ignore it when it's in your face all the time, especially when you're into Twitter and Facebook like Princey. You cop a hiding,” said Bailey. “But great halfbacks always redeem themselves.”
He went on and added that Prince is a great player who knows how to put aside the bad patch in his life to buy back his position in the world of rugby.
It will be interesting to see how far that holds true in case of Prince, who is otherwise an exceptional rugby league player with an embarrassing Rugby League year in 2011.
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