Five Metre Gap: Rep Weekend
Like the way of the five metre gap in defence, looking at the points you may have missed from the weekend of representative rugby league in Australia.
After Sunday’s Kangaroos versus Kiwis Test match, Josh Dugan’s poor display as a winger could have confirmed his spot as a fullback for NSW. The Dragons custodian played right wing for Australia and with centre Will Chambers, a fellow Test rookie, combined to miss six tackles as the Australian’s were humbled 26-12 by the Four Nations’ title-holders. Manu Vatuvei’s first half double produced nightmares as Dugan was caught out in the air with his starting position on the wing, and his defensive role, in such a play very different to a fullback. A clear plan for the Kiwis was to target the new duo and on the back of a 94% completion rate went into the break with a 26-6 lead which proved unassailable. Depending upon the extent of the damage to the former Raiders’ knee injury it may be a moot point but the result appears to make a strong case for playing players in their preferred position, especially if they are combining with fellow debutants.
The other Australia sides did triumph this weekend, as the defence forces and women’s side (the Jillaroos) won over their New Zealand opponents. Whilst on the Gold Coast, the Australia Junior Kangaroos also triumphed beating the Junior Kiwis 22-20. In such a tight game goal-kicking was important and it was interesting to note Australia switch kickers and use three during the game. After Jackson Hastings missed his first kicked he was swiftly replaced by Brisbane’s Ashley Taylor who also missed. Roosters’ youngster Hastings ended up with two successful attempts, Cronulla’s Valentine Holmes later notched a penalty as the game went to 16-all before Eel’s young bull Tepai Moeroa scored a crucial try. Zack Dockar-Clay missed as the young Kiwis scored late, he had also missed his first strike on goal. I’m not sure how much of a window this is for the permanent kicking in higher class games for the quartet but the fact not one of the four ‘owned’ the role of kicking is interesting.
Wagga Wagga hosted the City Country fixture with Trent Barrett’s side running out 34-22 winners despite falling behind early on after two tries to City for Raider Blake Austin. Wearing the number seven the Canberra pivot gave Brad Fittler’s side a lead, and he finished with three tries. Moreover he was solid in his defensive role missing one tackle, as opposed to Josh Reynold’s five missed tackles for City. NSW incumbent 5/8 Reynolds not only missed five tackles but he conceded two penalties and finished the game on report for two separate incidents. Couple that with the fact Austin ran down David Mead and pulled off a try-saving tackle on Tyson Frizzell as Laurie Daley cranks up the ‘Random NSW halves generator’ machine someone throw in the name of the former Tiger just to further confuse the matter. Yes one-time Origin player James Maloney led his side to the win but Austin’s performance in the Riverina and across the first two months of the NRL season certainly warrants inclusion in the conversation for the NSW halves.
On Saturday night in Campbelltown, Niue thumped South Africa 48-4. The Rhinos players only really got close to the team from the nation located north-east of Tonga when the Niueans finished their war cry (the Takalo) before the start of the match. Watching for a period on the live stream after halftime it would appear South Africa failed to learn their lessons from the first period when they were down 28-0. The world number 31 conceded a try from the first set of the half as Niue marched down the field before breaking down the middle past half-way. In consecutive plays of the ball the South African defenders were caught in no mans land, neither in the defensive line as a whole but also not close enough to stop off-loads if they were the nearest defender to the tackle. Filled mostly with players from their domestic competition we hope the Rhinos get a chance to improve upon their experience in Australia, having beaten the Philippines by four points a week earlier. Four of their players stay in Australia with two, Shane Gillham (Titans) and Harris Halvor (Cowboys), currently contracted to NRL clubs.
Elsewhere in the representative weekend there were wins to Fiji and Samoa on the Gold Coast who beat Papua New Guinea and Tonga respectively on Saturday whilst in Sydney on Sunday Lebanon (ranked 23) won the Phoenician Plate 34-16 over Malta (ranked 24.) The latter game featured one player from a UK side, Mitch Barbara of Hemel Stags, and it was notable especially in the Samoa v Tonga game that no UK-based players featured. Something to work on for next time.
Read more of Hamish’s blogs here
Hamish Neal
Latest posts by Hamish Neal (see all)
- Five Metre Gap: Rd 12 Wrap - May 31, 2016
- Five Metre Gap: Rd 11 Wrap - May 24, 2016
- Five Metre Gap: Rd 10 Wrap - May 17, 2016
