Hull KR have allowed Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e to leave the club on loan to get game time and continue his development as an exciting young Super League player.
He has finally agreed a loan move to Oldham RLFC. The 20-year-old took part in his first training session with the club last night and goes straight into contention for Sunday’s game against Workington.
In his first interview with Roughyeds TV, Brisbane-born Laulu-Togaga’e named Long as one of the factors in opting to play for Oldham.
“Oldham have a really good team and a great coach who I’ve followed; I’m really glad Sean was happy enough to take me,” he said.
“I am hoping to learn off Sean who was so good in a similar position to mine.
“I’m coming to get some game time and develop my game.
“I’m up for the challenge, I’m happy to be in a team that is favoured to win and I’m looking forward to the season.”
He has impressed in a number of different roles. He has played fullback, wing, in the halves and at hooker.
But with a fully fit squad at Hull KR, his opportunities at the moment are limited hence the need for a loan move and Willie Peters addressed this.
He said on the club’s YouTube channel: “The key for him is to play games. He needs to keep developing and the only way to do that is to play games.
“Ideally we’d like Phoenix to go out and play some rugby. He needs to go out and play at Championship or League 1 level.”
Hull KR star’s future up in the air
The future of Matty Storton at Hull KR has been raised lately by reports from Rugby League Live that Wakefield Trinity are closing in on signing the impressive prop.
However, there has been some push back on these reports with the situation being described as “more complex” by Hull Daily Mail.
Despite all of this, the Robins didn’t include him in their 17 against Warrington Wolves as Willie Peters strives to find his strongest 17 with a squad with terrific depth and strength in the squad.
He was however named 18th man meaning he would have been drafted into the side had there been significant head injuries in their 17.
However, the fact that he was outside the 17 raises a question about his future.
Hull KR hooker faces uncertain future
The future of another Hull KR star is up in the air in the shape of Matt Parcell.
This is because Jez Litten has emerged as the club’s goal kicker after the departures of Brad Schneider, Jordan Abdull and Lachlan Coote.
This is a problem given Litten and Parcell over interchange. On Sky, Jenna Brooks asked Hull KR boss Willie Peters: “Jez Litten has really claimed that role as goal kicker, how do you turn him into an 80 minute player?”
Peters answered: “Yeah, we’ll slowly do that. Obviously, I thought Matty did a good job as well. But yeah, we’ll just play more, each week we’ll just see where he’s at. You know, we don’t want to overdo him, but if he can play any minutes like he did against Leeds, then obviously that’ll benefit us.”
Following these comments, Sky pundit Paul Cooke questioned what this means: “It’s interesting about Jez Litten there with Peters saying they need to get more minutes out of him to keep him on the field. There’s a couple of ways to do that.
“You can throw him back on at 13 but then you lose Elliot Minchella who’s a massive in the middle. Or you don’t play Matt Parcell. I’m not sure which way you go with that.”
Jon Wilkin added: “Yeah, you wouldn’t want to be Matt Parcell would you? I mean what do you do then? You’re back-up nine who is almost redundant.”
