Canberra Raiders head coach Ricky Stuart has revealed his interchange plan was 'disrupted' by individuals not being up to standard in a narrow win over the New Zealand Warriors on Friday evening.
The Raiders, who ran away to an early 14-0 lead, took their foot off the gas during the middle third of the game and let the Warriors back into the contest.
They would eventually hang onto a 20 points to 18 victory, but not before some heart-stopping moments in the closing exchanges of the game, including a missed conversion from Warriors' half Chanel Harris-Tavita from next to the uprights that would have tied the contest.
Stuart only used 16 players in the win over the Warriors, with Danny Levi not making it onto the field, and Tom Starling instead playing the full 80 minutes.
Stuart said it came down to having to use interchanges on other players not being up to standard.
"I just apologised to Danny in the sheds there because I had to make some changes to our interchange going off the plan, which disrupted my opportunity to get Danny on," Stuart said during his post-match press conference.
"Fortunately for me, Tommy was playing really good and had the energy to get through 80, but I don't like not using anybody and getting them on. I apologised to Danny, but there were some individuals not up to standard tonight, and that disrupted my interchange."
The comments from Stuart will raise eyebrows given he only used six changes throughout the game, and had two up his sleeve at the end of the contest.
The Raiders appeared to be on plan with interchanges early, not making their first change until the 23rd minute when Josh Papalii was replaced by Trey Mooney, before Ata Mariota came into the game for the first time to replace Joseph Tapine just three minutes later.
Elliott Whitehead was replaced by Zac Hosking in the 29th minute, with no other changes prior to halftime. Tapine and Papalii came back into the game between the 50th and 55th minute, followed by Whitehead replacing fellow Englishman Morgan Smithies in the 63rd minute. With two interchanges remaining, Stuart refused to use either of them as the green machine clung onto the narrow win.
It's the first time the livewire dummy half Starling has played the full 80 minutes all season, with the hooker running the ball five times and making a game-high 55 tackles with only 2 misses.