‘Leader of our pack’: Lindsay Collins ready to step up from the front during Roosters’ injury crisis

The Roosters forward is one of the most damaging props in the NRL on his day, and has made his name as an enforcer who can change the momentum of a set at the drop of a hat.

But through two rounds in 2023, a new version of the 26-year-old has emerged. Lindsay Collins, the leader.

There’s no hiding how depleted the Roosters’ pack has been to begin this season.

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Angus Crichton, Matthew Lodge, Victor Radley and Sitili Tupouniua were all missing from their 20-14 victory over the Warriors on Saturday – 697 games of first-grade experience.

In their place were young forwards such as Naufahu Whyte, Terrell May and Ben Thomas — who have 23 NRL games between them.

Collins might not come across as the main man for the Roosters in their star-studded line-up, but the prop is now a two-time Origin winner and a World Cup champion with Australia. He knows it’s on him to stand up and lead his side through this injury crisis.

And his teammates are taking notice.

“He’s becoming a leader, especially of the pack,” said James Tedesco.

“Jared is the leader of our pack, but with him not here the last two weeks, Lindsay has stepped up.

“He was our players’ player last week, he will probably be close again this week. He sets the tone.

“We have a lot of young front rowers and middles playing tonight and he stepped up and led the way and those boys came with him.”

Collins finished the game against the Warriors with 143 run metres, 35 more than any other forward on the field. His 20 runs were also seven more than any other forward.

There was a sense this was a coming-of-age performance for Collins, and at the heart of his willingness to guide the younger players is feeling like he is still one himself.

“I think this is coming into my sixth year, so I still feel like a kid in my first couple of years,” Collins told News Corp.

“But you have to switch that mentality and look at yourself as a leader and realise that the younger boys sort of do look up to you. [You have] to lead by an example and stuff.”

Those opportunities at the representative level have accelerated his maturity.

No longer is he a firebrand providing rocks and diamonds moments in each game. He is the “rock” in the Roosters’ forward pack according to coach Trent Robinson and can be relied upon to make just as hard a hit-up in the first minute or the 80th.

And with that vote of confidence, he’s no longer satisfied just being an NRL player. He’s thinking bigger.

“You definitely grow from those [representative] experiences, and you get to meet other players who are at that level as well,” Collins said.

“You always come back better after rep footy.

“It’s just leading by example … and holding a standard. I think it comes with maturing as a front-rower as well.

“But then when it comes to game time, you just got to strip it all back and go hard, make your tackles. Everything else would come off the back of that sort of thing.

“Originally, I just [wanted to] play as many NRL games as I could. But now it’s the bigger picture, it’s the end of the year reward there.“

Collins understands the pressure he puts on himself when he says he wants to be the Roosters’ forwards leader.

While the flashy stylings of James Tedesco, Joseph-Aukuso Suaali’i and Joey Manu might grab the headlines, there’s a sense that when the Roosters are at their very best, it’s when their forwards are dominating.

They struggled in that regard during their shock loss against the Dolphins, only registering 1,166m for the match. They made 1,554m against the Warriors.

Regardless of the age or experience of the forwards on the park, the Roosters’ pack will never feel satisfied if they’re having to look for excuses.

“We take a lot of that onus on us,” Collins said.

“If we don’t create that power in the middle then our boys that are talented can’t do their thing off the back of it.

“Probably took a little bit off it last week as well because we didn’t aim up enough, so that was the main goal going into this week.”