Queensland legend Gorden Tallis calls out Blues enforcer Spencer Leniu
Maroons legend Gorden Tallis has called out Blues bench enforcer Spencer Leniu for coming on 'after all the tough stuff is done'.
Tallis dared NSW to pick Leniu as injured prop Mitch Barnett's replacement in the starting side for Game 2 and play him for 80 minutes.
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It comes in the wake of Queensland controversially not kicking off to Leniu in the series opener to avoid having to tackle the fresh front-rower charging off the back fence.
That was after the state's biggest newspaper, The Courier Mail, ran a back page photo of Leniu the day before the game with the headline 'Smash this Blues Grub'.
'I think Spencer Leniu should start and play 80 minutes,' Tallis said on NRL 360 on Wednesday night, which prompted chuckles from his fellow panellists.
'What, can't he play 80 minutes?'
'Will they kick off to him?' James Hooper fired back.
Tallis replied: 'Yeah absolutely. If he comes on and starts with those guys in the middle, I'm sure you'd kick to him.
'(Instead he) comes on after all the tough stuff is done, after 25 minutes. Start him and play him 80 minutes.'
'You're suggesting he ducks the hard stuff,' Dave Riccio said.
'I never said that. What's so hard? The game goes for 80 minutes,' Tallis responded.
'Why would he play 80 minutes?' Braith Anasta asked.
'Because that's how long the game goes for,' Tallis said.
'If you guys didn't duck the hard stuff you would have kicked the ball to him. What front-rower in the game plays 80 minutes?' Hooper said.
'Payne Haas does. Don't bag your own teammates,' Tallis said sarcastically.
'I'd pick him and play him 80 minutes but all of you three said he can't. They've got no faith in you, Spencer.'
'You're suggesting he's not tough enough,' Riccio said.
'It's only 80 minutes,' Tallis reiterated.
'But he's only playing 25 off the bench,' Riccio replied.
'Oh right, cool,' Tallis said again sarcastically.
The Courier Mail headline came six weeks after Leniu's verbal spat with Maroons legend Johnathan Thurston at Suncorp Stadium, the same venue that hosted Game 1.
Leniu's hostility centred around Thurston's comments on the Roosters hard man's eight-game ban for calling Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam a 'monkey' in Round 1 last year.
Mam was then suspended for nine games this season after being responsible for a drug-driving car crash that injured several people.
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