Take the Two: Round 15
NRL Round 15 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.
Penrith Panthers vs Cronulla Sharks
Another round and another two points for the Penrith Panthers, who extended their winning streak to 10 games with a resounding 38-12 victory over the Cronulla Sharks on Friday night.
Even if you’ve only followed Penrith through the highlights packages this year, you’d know that halfback Nathan Cleary has been instrumental to his team’s success, particularly with the ball in hand.
But it was the involvement of Penrith’s ‘lesser’ stars - Jarome Luai and Dylan Edwards among others - that had the Panthers flying on Friday night, in good signs for the competition leaders as they look ahead towards the finals.
The highlights reel will show Luai stepping three Sharks’ defenders on his way to a solo try in the 56th minute, but in truth this was one of the classier team efforts of the round just past.
With Penrith comfortably in control at 28-6, Edwards fields a bomb just out from his own try line and works 15 meters upfield. Two plays later, he takes another tackle busting carry through the middle third, before Luai sets up this short side raid:
The work from James Fisher-Harris here to dig into the line before releasing to Luai gives Penrith’s left edge that extra bit of space to work with, and they make it count:
Josh Mansour streaks down the sideline before offloading to Luai, who knows there will be space back to the right. James Tamou makes considerable inroads before earning a quick play the ball just short of the line.
Penrith looked certain to score down the short side, but Cronulla scrambled effectively before Edwards somehow regathered his own kick to earn the Panthers a fresh attacking set.
With the Sharks defensive line in disarray, Cleary has his first and only key involvement in this passage, and it’s a good one:
Despite it being first tackle, and with Fisher-Harris in position for a settling hit up, Cleary knows Penrith already have the numbers down their left edge. He dummies to Fisher-Harris which brings Siosifa Talakai out of the line, before floating a cut-out ball over the top to Luai, who does the rest.
One criticism of the Panthers in recent years has been their over-reliance on Cleary or Viliame Kikau in attacking sets.
But with Luai and Edwards developing as genuine play making options, Apisai Koroisau’s influence out of dummy half, and the emergence of teen sensation Stephen Crichton, Penrith now boast strike across the park.
Some are saying the Panthers have peaked too early, but they’ve shown nothing to suggest this offensive juggernaut is slowing down any time soon.
Canberra Raiders vs Gold Coast Titans
In a season where struggling clubs are desperately searching for a coach to change their fortunes, the Gold Coast Titans can take a bow for recruiting Justin Holbrook over the offseason.
While their result on the weekend - and their position on the ladder - might suggest otherwise, there has been a lot to like from the Titans this season, as Holbrook’s influence begins to take effect.
Clearly with a plan to ball play close to the line, rookie half Tanah Boyd delivered this peach of a pass to Sam Stone early in the first half:
And then Jarrod Wallace produced this on first tackle:
So much of Gold Coast’s poor form in recent years has been blamed on their lack of big game players in key positions, but perhaps they’ve lacked some direction from the coaches box too. Just fifteen games into his tenure, Holbrook had an admittedly much weaker squad competing with last year’s grand finalists for the best part of 60 minutes.
Ultimately, however, the cream rose to the top, as Jack Wighton in particular stood tall with a two try performance.
Some champagne footy down Canberra’s left edge netted Wighton his first one, before he punished Keegan Hipgrave for coming off his line too laterally just a few minutes later:
Then just before half time Hipgrave was isolated again, this time by rookie hooker Tom Starling:
Hipgrave falls for the worst-sold dummy of all time as Starling motions casually infield before turning back to the short side, wrong-footing poor Hipgrave at marker and diving over relatively untouched.
All due respect to Hipgrave, but it’s hard to see Starling scoring this try next year with David Fifita defending on the Titan’s right edge.
Take nothing away from the Raiders though, who are still adjusting their attack in the absence of influential hooker Josh Hodgson.
As mentioned, Wighton was back to his destructive best, while George Williams continues to fly under the radar as one of the better halfbacks in the NRL right now. But a quick look at the stat sheet suggests that Ricky Stuart might be able to get more out of fan favourite Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad at fullback.
With only three try assists to his name so far this season, Nicoll-Klokstad showed us this weekend that he has the skills to ball play in attacking sets:
Slotting in at pivot, Nicoll-Klokstad does well to straighten up at Boyd before a clever double-pump leaves Philip Sami in no-mans-land. The pass goes right past Curtis Scott to the chest of Cotric, who dives over in the corner.
While undoubtedly at his best when running the footy, if Ricky Stuart can get Nicoll-Klokstad more involved as a ball player in the Raider’s offensive structures, the fullback shapes as a key man for Canberra heading into the finals.
Special mention goes to Josh Papalii for that effort on a runaway Jamal Fogarty. It wouldn’t be right to talk about Canberra this week without mentioning the big fella.
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the Newcastle Knights.
They might have got the two points, but that’s about the only positive coach Adam O’Brien will have taken away from Sunday’s dour clash with the North Queensland Cowboys.
Coming up against the competition’s third-worst defence, many expected the Knights to rack up the points on Sunday afternoon. But poor execution saw Newcastle make just three line breaks and score only two tries despite enjoying the weight of possession and completing at a higher rate.
But the stats don’t truely indicate how disorganised the Knights were in attack.
They clearly had a plan to shift the ball across the park and move the Cowboys’ forwards around - understandable given North Queensland’s poor goal-line defence this season - and it worked early on:
The Knights come left to Mitchel Pearce who drops off Enari Tuala back infield. Tuala beats a few tired forwards with some footwork, and the Cowboys’ left edge is dragged in as a result:
Another carry in behind the ruck sucks North Queensland’s left edge in further, and by the time Green plays the ball, it’s a simple numbers game to Hymel Hunt in the corner:
But that’s about as good as it got for the Knights.
Too often we watched Newcastle turn back towards the middle only to come to a stumbling halt, as players mistimed runs or were caught out of position:
This lack of cohesion meant the Knights crossed for just two four-pointers despite having a Round-high 55 tackles inside the opposition’s 20 meter line - frankly absurd numbers.
For reference, the second-most play the balls inside an opposition’s ‘red zone’ in Round 15 was South Sydney’s 49 against Manly, in a completely one-sided affair where they managed to cross for nine tries.
But Newcastle’s disjointed performance on Sunday can be summed up in a single play.
Defending his try line, star fullback Kalyn Ponga pounces on a loose ball and races 80 meters upfield, getting his team out of trouble and immediately into attacking territory.
North Queensland’s defensive line is non-existent with just three men onside, while the Knights have nine players in position fanning out to the left:
From dummy-half, all Gehamat Shibasaki has to do is pass to literally any Knights player in range and Newcastle are sure to score, but instead he inexplicably tucks it under the arm and scoots for the try line himself.
He does draw a penalty and get Mitchell Dunn sent for 10, but this kind of breakdown in communication and understanding between Knights’ players is what has us looking to next week for Newcastle.
With yet another forced change in the spine looming, the pressure is on Adam O’Brien to get the mix right in time for his team to make an impression in the upcoming finals series.