Fijian prop forward Lasarusa Tabu will be in Whitehaven later today after successfully receiving visa approval for his stint at the LEL Arena.
Tabu will be at Sunday’s game with Castleford Tigers although it is not expected that he will be part of the match-day squad involved in the action.
The powerful front-rower has been playing in the Elite 1 competition in France since 2017 for Albi, Villeneuve and latterly Carcassonne and had been named in the train on squad for Fiji for this year’s World Cup but missed out on selection for the final squad.
Tabu has been described as “a big rough front rower, your typical Fijian front rower who hits hard and runs even harder.”
Haven’s two Australian recruits Lachlan Lanskey and Castle have played in both the two warm-up games with Workington and Wigan and showed enough to suggest the club has landed two useful forwards.
Sunday will be the biggest test yet for Jonty Gorley’s men as Lee Radford is bringing his first team squad to contest the first half while reserves and Academy hopefuls will be used in the second half.
“We’ve read about Whitehaven’s financial problems over the last 12 months so we are hoping that our appearance up there will give them a boost and we can get some good numbers through the gate.
“The game was arranged when we signed Kieran Hudson from them last season and it’s so disappointing that he’s been injured when he was flying in training.
“We are taking a strong squad up there and it’s going to be a challenge. The travel is a challenge, the facilities are a challenge, the pitch is a challenge and there is a right and a wrong way to approach that, so I want us going there in the right frame of mind.
“Our game was postponed last week so it has meant that some blokes didn’t get a chance to show what they can do and that will affect my squad choice at Whitehaven. We will be fielding a strong side,” said Radford.
