Five Metre Gap: Rd 17 Wrap
Like the way of the five metre gap in defence, looking at the points you may have missed from Round 17 of the NRL.
Reigning premiers South Sydney fell 20-6 to the Panthers in Penrith on Friday night and their attacking incisiveness left a lot to be desired. By half-time South Sydney had 24 tackles inside the Panthers ‘red zone’ (last 20 metres) compared to the home side’s 10 with Penrith already two tries to the good. Michael Maguire’s halves combination of Luke Keary and Adam Reynolds ran only three times between them all game content to feed the ball to the edges, possibly in the hope a recently energised forward pack might catch Penrith napping. It didn’t work and Ivan Cleary’s side picked up their seventh triumph for the year and edge just outside the top eight. As Panther pivot Jamie Soward noted the following day on Triple M without Greg Inglis lurking to come into the play the Rabbitohs lacked a cutting edge in attack.
Speaking of under-performing playmakers Ben Barba ran only once for the Sharks as they were beaten 28-16 by Manly on Sunday at Brookvale Oval. The former Bronco came on halfway into the first stanza and played 57 minutes. Immediately normal halfback Jeff Robson shifted to dummy half but it seemed a futile change as Barba’s 24 possessions yielded little with a late Andrew Fifita double flattering the visitors.
As an under-strength North Queensland won in Wollongong 18-12 it appeared to be a bonus win given the absence of four of their key players, Michael Morgan, James Tamou, Matt Scott and future immortal Johnathan Thurston. The victory, their seventh away from home in 2015, was sealed by a 100% completion rate (20/20) in the second half and the Dragons inability to breach the Cowboys defence in that period, bar Mark Ioane’s try 28 minutes from time. The result whilst close was ground out by Paul Green’s men against a team also impacted by major absentees but the North Queensland side was very impressive as they failed to complete only one set in the first half. It is worth noting Paul McGregor’s side also completed at a high-rate, 95% for 35/37.
Another interesting point from the Steeler Dome on Saturday was the seemingly low use of two bench forwards by McGregor as try-scorer Mark Ioane and debutant YouTube hit Luke Page only spent 18 and 12 minutes on the park respectively. When chasing the game utilising fresh players would seem a good strategy but former Steeler McGregor instead elected to run with other experience players for longer as the side trailed for almost the last half hour until they fell to the six-point loss. After the defeat, the Red V outfit still sit fourth but could have kicked clear of the other sides on 20 points with a win.
With two tries to his credit in the first half things were going well for Kevin Naiqama as his Wests Tigers went to the break leading 16-12 over Parramatta on Monday night. Unfortunately for the winger he was caught on with two kicks which lead to Eels tries as Brad Arthur’s men overhauled Wests 28-16 at ANZ Stadium. First trying to stop Semi Radradra from side on and 12 minutes later tackling Radradra low down before the Fijian popped the ball to Chris Sandow the 26 year-old was well and truly caught out. The ex-Knights flyer had a night to forget capped off when he tried to snatch an intercept which allowed Radradra to score his second for the night as Wests slipped to bottom stop on the ladder. In fairness to Naiqama he is player outside the more inexperienced side of the Tigers defence but at this level those three errors are unforgiveable, particularly in such a short space of time.
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Hamish Neal
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