NamedEntitySpawnPacket trouble rotating npcs

I'm having trouble rotating player npcs (setting yaw/pitch) using NamedEntitySpawnPacket from the protocollib packetwrapper class for 1.8. I've tried everything ranging from using the headrotationpacket to trying to teleport the entities using the teleportpacket but to no avail I can't rotate the npcs, much help or a hint would be appreciated. The SpawnEntityLivingPacket works perfectly with yaw/pitch but the player packet doesn't :/