Five Metre Gap: Rd 12 Wrap
Like the way of the five metre gap in defence, looking at the points you may have missed from round 12 of the NRL.
Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett emerged triumphant against one of his former teams for the second week running as the Broncos beat the Raiders 24-12. However the left edge of the visitor’s attack nearly let them down. Twice they had chances to score late in the first half but managed to conspire to let the Raiders off the hook. One of those attempts would have given them an 18-0 lead but Raiders pivot Blake Austin managed to narrow the gap to 12-6 with his great piece of backing up. Jarrad Kennedy helped to level the scores but Brisbane thwarted the comeback with a great team try right on the break before a second-half four-pointer edge to Corey Oates. Luckily the misses before the 20 minute mark didn’t prove too costly, but they may against a stronger outfit.
Ladder-leading St George Illawarra have been lauded for their defence in recent weeks but they turned on the flair dispatching Cronulla 42-6 on Sunday afternoon. It was another impressive effort as well from starting props Leeson Ah Mau and Mike Cooper. We noted the error-free work of Ah Mau in our round seven wrap and former Warrington forward Cooper has joined the Samoan international on an error-free run since that round.
There was no post-Origin hangover for Queensland prop Matt Scott who had a career-evening as he added two tries to his usual workmanlike effort which helped see North Queensland get home late against Manly. The Cowboys forward played 60 minutes (11 minutes longer than Origin) made 41 tackles (14 more than Origin) and made 14 runs. The Longreach native made 123 metres off the same amount of runs (14) as he made in Origin and that was down on his Wednesday night effort of 140 metres but at barely a metre less each run we are certainly not going to pot the 29 year-old for that. The other two Origin starting props who featured in round 12 performed admirably. Scott’s club teammate James Tamou in 48 minutes made 25 tackles but was hugely impressive in making 131 metres in 15 runs whilst Titan Nate Myles logged a huge 42 tackles. The Queenslander was down on the yardage, six runs for only 46 metres, but given he made 35 tackles in 55 minutes during Origin whilst also running for 116 metres we think it’s a pass mark. However unlike the Cowboys’ duo Myles was in a losing side as Souths triumphed 22-16.
Not until the 15th minute on Monday night did the Roosters make an error when Issac Liu coughed up possession in his own half before the side ran out 24-2 winners against Melbourne. That particular aspect wasn’t the most impressive part of what set the platform for their win. During that period the Roosters, even if they didn’t finish each set in the Storm’s red zone (last 20 metres) were able to put in a kick with attacking intent. Invariably this kick would land at least inside the Storm ten if not the in-goal area. Coupled with Melbourne errors, penalties and repeat sets Craig Bellamy’s side was almost out of the contest before it started. The final tackle count of 376 for Melbourne and 242 for the Roosters is a telling statistic. Very much set up by the opening efforts of Trent Robinson’s men.
Three games out of 11 in the last two rounds have been decided by four point or less, and another game was decided in the last two minutes. This is further evidence for the value of elite-level goal-kicking. 16 attempts were missed in this weekend as 17 kickers were used for a raft of reasons by the 14 clubs in action. The last full round of NRL (round 10) saw 14 attempts missed. That was with one more game played and Parramatta’s limp effort with the boot. With 32 points going begging this weekend it perhaps proves how significant the role is. Notably three of the current top four have a locked-in’, elite goal-kicker. This discounts forward Corey Parker who is sometimes on the bench for Brisbane.
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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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