Benji Marshall has rubbished suggestions he will dump Stefano Utoikamanu to reserve grade, as the Wests Tigers coach also shoulders some responsibility for three of the club's rising talents missing the team bus.
Fresh off one-time NSW Origin prop Utoikamanu signalling he will quit the club at the end of the season, it has emerged that a trio of the club's highly-touted prospects had to make their own way to Auckland airport after last week's 28-16 loss to the Warriors.
Five-eighth Lachlan Galvin, promising hooker Tallyn Da Silva and winger Luke Laulilii, who will miss Thursday's Leichhardt Oval clash with the North Queensland Cowboys due to concussion, failed to show up for the team bus on Saturday morning.
Galvin and Da Silva have been spared the selection axe, with Marshall claiming it was his directive for the team to leave them behind.
"A lot has been made of it but those guys made an honest mistake," Marshall said.
"They slept through their alarm and turned it off and from our point of view we're dealing with it internally.
"The truth is the bus driver had to go… he couldn't wait any longer.
"They actually got to the airport before us. It was my call for the bus to go and I'm not sticking up for those guys and saying it was right.
"If they'd been out on the drink then it would have been a different story."
The latest unwanted headline for the Tigers follows news of Utoikamanu's impending departure with Canterbury and Melbourne both circling the front-rower.
Marshall insisted he felt the Tigers, who offered the 24-year-old a five-year deal, did their best to keep Utoikamanu.
The Tigers coach bristled when it was put to him that losing Utoikamanu was another setback for the embattled club who remain on course for a third-straight wooden spoon.
"There's a lot of other players that want to be here," Marshall said.
On the prospect of blooding another young player in Utoikamanu's place, Marshall said: "We've still got a lot to play for. We want to try and not win the wooden spoon this year.
"Just because he's leaving you don't out of spite say we won't play him.
"We still have a lot of respect for Stefano. He's been open and honest through the whole process so he'll play the rest of the season."
Marshall said Adam Doueihi, who missed last week's loss to the Warriors due to "load management" was being rested for the Cowboys game due to increased swelling in his knee.
Doueihi has suffered three anterior cruciate ligament injuries in his career and only returned to NRL action six weeks ago.
"He might play next week," Marshall said. "We're trying to make sure we do everything so nothing happens to his knee."
