Take the Two: Round 8
NRL Round 8 under the microscope
If the beer’s cold and the afternoon’s long enough, we’d be talking footy all day, every day until kickoff on Thursday night. With so much to review each week, let’s break down some of the key plays each week in the NRL.
Melbourne Storm vs Sydney Roosters
The NRL competition heavyweights put on another show for the ages in Round 8, as the Melbourne Storm claimed a 27–25 win over defending premiers the Sydney Roosters.
Without playmaker Cameron Munster, Melbourne served up a classic Storm-like performance to always keep themselves one clutch moment away from victory — a moment that young Ryan Papenhuyzen absolutely nailed.
But it barely felt like a loss for the tri-colours, who again showed why they have been the benchmark this season both in defence andwith the ball in hand.
It is a sign of Sydney’s supremacy that they could play so poorly (relatively speaking) and still fall just short in extra-time — to the Melbourne Storm, of all teams:
The Roosters completed 27 from 41 sets across the match, down more than 10% from their season average completion rate of 76%. They made 17 errors and conceded six penalties to the Storm’s three, and earned less than half the attacking chances Melbourne had throughout the game (15 vs 40 tackles inside opposition 20m).
Yet they still came within a Golden Point penalty of winning the game.
One passage of play in the second half exemplifies ‘the Rooster’s way’ that Trent Robinson often talks about, and for me, is why the Roosters are still the team to beat in 2020.
After defending their goal line against consecutive sets, Sydney feed a scrum on their 10 meter line and begin working upfield. As we’ve seen time and again through Luke Keary and James Tedesco, the Roosters are unafraid to chance their arm coming out their own end:
On fourth tackle, on their 40 meter line, the Roosters’ left-edge makes a break through Josh Morris and suddenly the Storm are scrambling.
Take note of where Angus Crichton (right-side back row) and Lindsay Collins (right-side prop forward) are at the beginning of this tackle.
Standing on their own 40 meter line and with the ball going left, you could excuse Crichton and Collins for switching off here, their job’s done.
But when Morris finds Keary in support back on the inside, halfback Kyle Flanagan knows they will have the numbers on the right.
More importantly, Flanagan’s entire right-edge of Collins, Crichton, Joey Manu and Brett Morris know it too, and push up in support:
Lindsay Collins races up on Flanagan’s outside, making himself an option and giving the Roosters an extra number, which buys Crichton the time to pick his pass perfectly.
Try time.
As a bench forward in the 55th minute of the game, Collins was in the final stages of his expected 30–35 minute stint and likely under heavy fatigue.
The effort from the big prop to act as a ball player in this shift is extraordinary, and will be championed in Robinson’s video review just as much as Crichton’s peach of a pass to Morris in the corner.
Any team of players that can execute footy of this quality, out of position and under fatigue, is going to be hard to beat come finals time.
Canterbury Bulldogs vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs put away an improved Canterbury Bulldogs side 26–10 on Sunday, returning to the winners circle after an error ridden performance last round.
Whenever Souths are in the headlines, all the talk is usually around Latrell Mitchell or something Wayne Bennett said in the presser — big names make for big news, and the Rabbitohs are short of neither this year.
But with star attacking players across their backline, the work of Souths’ middle forwards this year is going relatively unnoticed.
In the absence of club legends John Sutton and Sam Burgess, many pundits wrote off the Rabbitohs’ pack in 2020, but Bennett has assembled a well-balanced forward rotation that is showing good signs as the season progresses.
Tom Burgess’ giant frame is running for a career-high 141 meters per game and he seems to have embraced his role as front-row leader this season. The likes of Ethan Lowe and Tevita Tatola offer some mobility and a high work-rate through the middle, while Jaydn Su’a has begun to display the dynamic form that saw him earn junior representative honours.
But it is Cam Murray’s return to the lock position that has seen the Rabbitohs become more dominant in the middle of the park, as was apparent in the lead up to Cody Walker’s second-half try.
Gifted a fresh set on the Bulldog’s line, Souths head left to the posts through Burgess, with Murray running the lead decoy line. Burgess almost crashes over, dragging five Dog’s players into the tackle:
Murray then runs a jockey decoy line right towards Kieran Foran, who comes up off his line in response. Tatola almost sneaks through the resulting gap, and the Dog’s defence is compressed again:
From good field position, Souths shift it left to Walker, but Canterbury’s defence slides comfortably enough. Walker takes the tackle near the left scrum line, before Cook sends it back to the middle through Murray again:
It mightn’t look like much, but Murray’s simple tip-on to Tatola here gets the big man one-on-one with Faitala-Mariner, and he plays the ball quickly for Cook who comes back to the left again.
Murray and Burgess pull the same shape they ran on second tackle, but this time Burgess runs the lead decoy line and Murray is out the back:
Josh Jackson jams in on Burgess as he did earlier in the set, when he likely prevented a barge over try. Expecting this, Murray squares up at the hole left by Jackson, then tips it on for Walker to score.
Smart footy.
Considering Souths poor handling and execution in attacking sets recently, it would seem like good coaching from Bennett to simplify things in attack for his players and play more around the ruck.
Five carries through the middle third of the field mightn’t seem like much when you have a fresh attacking set on the goal line.
But thanks largely to Murray, South Sydney’s forwards ran in shape — and with variety — on every tackle and attacked both sides of the ruck, which scrambled the Bulldog’s defence and led to points.
There’s Alway Next Week for…
…the Wests Tigers.
Last week I touched on coach Michael Maguire’s challenge to turn the Wests Tigers into a tougher, more consistent outfit week to week.
Since making mass changes to the squad in Round 5, the Tigers have conceded just over 14 points a game in what must be pleasing signs for the man they call ‘Madge’.
Going into Saturday’s clash without big men Alex Twal and Zane Musgrove, the Tigers lost an in-form Luciano Leilua and rookie Sam McIntyre (both HIA) throughout the match, while centre Moses Mbye played on despite an obvious knee injury.
All of this against a Penrith Panthers outfit that has now well and truely announced itself as a premiership threat in 2020.
Yet with an aggressive defensive attitude and the high-energy work rate of Josh Reynolds leading the way with his kick and kick-chase all night, the Tigers were in it up to their teeth until the final moments.
Behind by 7 and with less than four minutes on the clock, Reynolds rushes out of the line to put a shot on Josh Mansour, forcing an error and earning Wests a fresh attacking set.
Whether or not there was time enough for Tigers to get the win, Reynolds’ effort here is right out of the Maguire hand-book and typifies why he was selected over the attacking flair of Benji Marshall.
Work hard, stay in the grind, and your chances will come.
The Tigers ultimately failed to capitalise on this opportunity, and with the ball turned over just short of the line, Joey Leilua hits Dylan Edwards high and off the ball,releasing all the pressure and sealing the result for the Panthers.
Madge would have been filthy.
Not because BJ has a colourful history with the match review committee.
Not because he is “ the worst signing in the NRL era “, because, well, he isn’t.
But because the Wests Tigers had collectively stuck to the game plan for 78-and-a-half minutes and were within arm’s distance of a win against a top-tier team, only to throw it all away thanks to some poor discipline in the final moments.
Whatever message Michael Maguire has for BJ Leilua in Monday’s video session will no doubt be for the team as a whole too — the game was only lost when they went away from the plan.
Did somebody say ‘trust the process’?
Originally published at https://rlwriters.substack.com.
