Five Metre Gap: Rd 11 Wrap
Like the way of the Five Metre Gap in defence, reviewing the points you may have missed from Round 11 of the NRL which featured four games due to the first Origin match.
Last week we led with a whack of Parramatta and whilst it would be easy to do so again given the errors and missed goals let us applaud South Sydney for their effort in winning Friday night’s match against the Eels 14-12. Missing only nine tackles all game given the horrendous weather was a top notch effort coupled with their competition rate of 82% (32/39). Michael Maguire’s side had five more sets of possessions than the Eels. Both sets of stats a welcome one for those with fantasy forwards from the Bunnies looking for numbers in the tackle and hit-up departments. Thanks Tom Burgess!
The luck of the draw saw the Bulldogs face one of the three sides not impacted by Origin selections when they visited the Canberra suburb of Bruce on Sunday. Des Hasler’s side performed a Houdini act to see off the Raiders after coughing up the lead having raced out to an early advantage with four tries in 15 minutes before a late field goal the try sealed the triumph. The Raiders did lose Jack Wighton before the game but it’s huge bonus for the Bulldogs to nab a win, their fifth in this campaign, in the period against a side which wasn’t impacted by Origin absences.
As North Queensland ground the Tigers into the Campbelltown turf late on Saturday night the howls of disapproval at the lack of creativity from both sides and tags of ‘worst game ever’ reached hyperbolic level. Yes, the game on Saturday night may have left some scribes battling to find synonyms for boring to describe the play but the contest was enough to keep the neutrals engaged. By way of example the ratings on Fox Sports of 244,000 were somewhat down on the block-buster round 10 game of Storm v Rabbitohs which attracted 296,000 in the corresponding time-slot but compared favourably to the 256,000 fans who watched the Cowboys best the Bulldogs in week nine. It also bested most 5:30pm games of recent weeks. Sometimes it’s a contest and not always just skill that keeps people watching.
In the 8-0 win to Paul Green’s side it as interesting to note how the defensive work was spread amongst the Tigers side with two workhorse forwards absent. Regular captain Robbie Farah (51) and prop Aaron Woods (41) combined for 92 tackles in round ten but in Round 11, 38 tackles was the top mark achieved by three players, but two of them came off the bench to reach that mark. Kyle Lovett and Ava Seumanufagai (both of the bench) plus Kiwi international Martin Taupau spread the load amongst themselves to replace the herculean efforts normally registered by Farah and Woods. Also of note was regular centre Chris Lawrence’s 35 tackles. The most he had made in any single game in the last month was 15 tackles.
One bright spark for Newcastle on Monday night as they were beaten 31-18 on Wayne Bennett’s home-coming was former NSW Origin forward Kade Snowden. As the Knights burst out of the blocks to start the season 4-0 Snowden, most recently an Origin forward in 2011, averaged 17 runs for 134 metres and 35 tackles a game. This was followed by a dip in form for a month before the 28 year-old logged 25 tackles, made 19 runs (168 metres) and had three offloads in his contribution against the Tigers. He replicated his good first month of form in making 39 tackles as well as running for 131 metres from 14 runs against Brisbane. The former Shark off-loaded twice and helped the Knights cross for one of their tries at Hunter Stadium.
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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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