Five Metre Gap: Rd 10 Wrap
Like the way of the five metre gap in defence, looking at the points you may have missed from round ten of the NRL. The final round before the first phase of byes rounds commence.
With Parramatta halfback Chris Sandow axed Luke Kelly was thrown in the deep end for the Eels, 3-6 coming into their game on Saturday afternoon against the New Zealand Warriors. Nabbed in golden point extra time despite having scored three tries to the visitor’s two in the regulation period of 80 minutes Kelly, once of the Melbourne Storm, missed all three conversion attempts. The 25 year-old did sneak the one-pointer to send the game to additional time but it was intriguing he didn’t go for it earlier (particularly when it would have put Brad Arthur’s side ahead.) Six minutes after Ryan Morgan’s try drew the sides level an Eels set had them near the Warriors 20 but to the right of the posts. It was a surprise Kelly didn’t pot for the lead then knowing they still would have had to time to replay to any Warriors score in the following 11 minutes. We can’t underscore enough the value of early field goal attempts. Especially in the first 70 minutes. The worst result is you miss and they are all worth the same. However this point is not to blame the defeat on Kelly, the Eels only completed 60% of the sets so really it’s hard to pin responsibility on the man from Katherine in the Northern Territory.
As Origin time rolls around the value of strong bench players asked to play more minutes with state players away/the impact of injuries means interesting times for NRL coaches (real and fantasy ones.) Both Gold Coast’s Eddy Pettybourne and Dylan Napa of the Roosters racked up big metres as interchanges on the weekend. As Cronulla beat the Titans in golden point Pettybourne, 27, ran for 140 metres from his 17 runs whilst Napa, as his Roosters defeated the Bulldogs, produced 142 metres from 13 runs. Both Pettybourne and Napa are missing next weekend with their respective sides on the bye but they might need it after their exceptional bench efforts.
In the afore-mentioned Roosters 24-10 win the handling from both sides was woeful in the second period with the victorious team going 9/17 (53%) and the Des Hasler’s Bulldogs not much better at 10/17 (59%.) Neither side surpassed 70% for the match which is odd for two very disciplined sides who have each featured in grand finals in the last two seasons.
Heading into the first bye round it’s time to take stoke (skull!) and the top try-scorers list in interesting reading. Curtis Rona from the Bulldogs has eleven to top the table. Second is Titans centre James Roberts on nine. It’s not until we get to third spot that we find players who could be considered certain starters before pre-season commenced at each club. Tigers duo James Tedesco and Pat Richards have eight tries each. Alex Johnston, incumbent test winger from late 2014, and Daniel Tupou also have eight as does Solomone Kata and Anthony Don, of the Warriors and Gold Coast respectively. An interesting data set given expectations for some of the others players not as high up the list.
As with last week we kick on the last with another note which may be of interest for those Australian-based fans with a look at rugby league broadcasting in New Zealand. On Friday night I had the pick of the games (Cowboys v Brisbane or Bulldogs v Roosters) across two Sky Sport channels in New Zealand. The pay-tv provider has, for some time, done this as well as screening the Sunday games which kick-off at 3pm AEST (or ADST) live. This season the second afternoon game which was always delayed in Australian on Channel 9 is now shown live in Australia but it’s a luxury NZ fans have had for some time. As of next season Channel 9 management have said they will split the games on Friday night so fans have the choice but it won’t be anything new for Kiwi league fans, who admittedly do have to stay up late to exercise this choice on a Friday night.
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Hamish Neal
Latest posts by Hamish Neal (see all)
- Five Metre Gap: Rd 12 Wrap - May 31, 2016
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