Take the Two NRL Round 6 Review: Katoa coming of age & Johnson’s set-piece brilliance

Take the Two: Katoa coming of age & Johnson’s set-piece brilliance

Whether you’re searching for an edge in the workplace tipping comp or just desperate to talk some footy, you’ve found the place. Join Oscar Pannifex as he unpacks the scrum each week in the NRL.


Katoa coming of age

The stats sheet crediting Isaiya Katoa for one try assist in The Dolphins 32-22 win over North Queensland in Round 6 is a good example of numbers not always telling the full story. Playing just his fifth game in the NRL, Katoa’s fingerprints were all over this Dolphins performance in what must be considered a coming-of-age game for the rookie halfback.

With Sean O’Sullivan and Anthony Milford on the sidelines, Katoa was tasked with steering the ship and he did so with aplomb. He executed a gameplan with the ball and defended well enough with Griffin Naeme lining him up for most of the evening. Some moments of individual brilliance from Jeremy Marshall-King and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow eventually broke the game open, but it was Katoa’s involvements that put The Dolphins in a position to win it late.

Cowboys left winger Brendan Elliott was a target for Katoa right from the opening set. The young half put boot to ball 13 times, with most of those kicks coming down on Elliott’s head. For the most part Elliott handled the attention, but over the course of 80-minutes the tactic paid dividends. A good kick chase often limited Elliott on his returns, and The Dolphins locked in to contain a customary Valentine Holmes scoot on tackle two.

Not just a target for yardage kicks, Elliott was then isolated on his own try line by a pinpoint Katoa kick early in the contest.

The setup from Marshall-King here is perfect to minimise the kick-pressure on Katoa. With time to make the play, Katoa brings the ball down on a dime and some acrobatic brilliance from Isaako does the rest. Elliott couldn’t have done much more here – that’s just too good from Isaako.

It became quickly apparent that Elliott was in for a busy afternoon. Katoa had just eight runs in Round 6, but all of them came down the right edge as he tested Elliott’s decision making and positioning in the line.

Katoa fakes to drop Connelly Lemuelu underneath here which holds up the inside defence and buys him space to straighten on his run:

Naeme considers Lemuelu’s decoy for half a second, allowing Katoa to dig into the line and engage Tom Dearden’s inside shoulder. With Dearden stuck in the mud, Holmes and Elliott are forced to turn in which creates the overlap down the touchline. Elliott makes the right read here but can’t get to Tabuai-Fidow before the pass is released.

Having found some joy on that edge, Katoa went looking there again not long after.

It’s a clean pass from Marshall-King this time that allows Katoa to straighten the attack:

Scott Drinkwater is chasing from the inside but he can’t apply enough pressure to release Dearden in the line. With Dearden engaged, Holmes is again forced to turn in but Elliott is late to the party and misses his assignment. Katoa does well not to overplay his hand here. His early service gives Tabuai-Fidow enough time to beat Elliott’s attempted tackle, and some lovely footwork finishes things off from there.

Sticking to the plan, Katoa and The Dolphins continued to chip away at the Cowboys left edge. Elliott’s decision making was again the target, as was Naeme’s positioning and mobility defending on an edge in this game.

This lovely tip-on from Herman Ese’Ese in good-ball was the trigger for Isaako’s third try.

Ese’Ese’s target here is Naeme as the four-in defender. His pass to Lemuelu drags Naeme into the tackle which strips the Cowboys left edge for numbers. Lemuelu gets to his feet quickly enough and before North Queensland can set their line, another good pass from Marshall-King finds the space out wide.

Holmes and Elliott don’t jam in unison when faced with the overlap here, and Katoa’s soft hands punish that disconnect. Elliott actually gets a touch on the ball which should’ve shut things down here, but some nice deception from Lee – and some poor Cowboys defence – puts Isaako over for his hattrick.

Some tinkering from Todd Payten at halftime saw the Cowboys adjust their defensive movements in the second half. Instead of jamming up-and-in, Dearden, Holmes and Elliott played passive and slid laterally, trying to herd The Dolphins towards the touchline.

Faced with a different defensive approach, Katoa made his own adjustments to The Dolphins attack. This fake to kick before running it on the last was straight out of the Adam Reynolds playbook:

It’s difficult to see without a wide shot, but Katoa’s dummy-kick gets the Cowboys left edge retreating towards the corner. Having created the space, Katoa passes to Tabuai-Fidow with room to move and it’s only a heavy kick from Lee that denies ‘The Hammer’ back on the inside.

In isolation, this is a minor involvement from Katoa. In the context of the game however, Katoa’s ability to react and adjust to the defence is testament to his composure and understanding with the ball in hand. He’s just five games into his NRL career but is doing things we usually expect from veteran playmakers.

“Some individual brilliance helped Jamayne Isaako to a first-half hattrick, courtesy of some lovely playmaking from Isaiya Katoa. The young half perfectly executed a gameplan designed to test Cowboys winger Brendan Elliott, and Isaako was the main beneficiary.”

Round 6 Scores & Team Grades

He’s still got a ways to go. With four minutes left and a six point lead, Katoa opted for a cross-field attacking bomb rather than rolling the ball into the in-goal or just taking the tackle. Kyle Feldt caught that kick to win North Queensland a seven-tackle set and a chance to tie things up.

Katoa showed his inexperience in that moment, but we can be sure it’s something Wayne Bennett will address in the review. Overall though, Katoa performed beyond his years in Round 6 to outplay Dearden and Chad Townsend and guide The Dolphins to their fourth win of the NRL season.


There’s Always Next Week For…

… the Brisbane Broncos

It’s impossible to know for sure, but from the outside looking in it felt like the Broncos lost this one before a ball had even been kicked. Flying high with five straight wins and looking untouchable at times to begin the NRL regular season, Brisbane didn’t take the field with the same intensity we saw across the first five rounds. In contrast, the Canberra Raiders fought for every contest to grind out a 20-14 win over the competition leaders.

Despite being well-off their usual standards, the Broncos still looked like they might’ve jagged a win in this one. The go-forward Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan can generate through the middle is near impossible to contain and if they’d just rolled their sleeves up for a 20 minute period, it felt like the momentum would turn. Instead, Brisbane tried to finesse their way around a hungry Raiders side and the scoreboard pressure did the rest.

If Kevvie Walters can use this loss as a learning experience, the Broncos can still consider themselves genuine NRL premiership threats. There can be no doubts around their winning formula after Round 6 – punch through the middle and win the ruck before dipping into their pool of attacking talent out wide. We can expect a response from Brisbane in Round 7.


NRL Round 6 Shout-Outs

Save Our Scrums, Vol. 52 – Shaun Johnson is in a rich vein of form right now and his assists from set pieces in Round 6 were two of the best attacking actions we saw over the weekend. Adam Pompey put a lovely specialist move on Bradman Best to score his second, but his first was courtesy of some playmaking magic from Johnson off the scrum.

Instead of just ‘running the ball’ more as he’s so often called to do, Johnson uses his speed to beat his opposite man (Jayden Brailey) and isolate Best in the line:

He sizes up Brailey before exploding off his left foot to get at Best defending at left centre. Best does well to maintain his position and hold on Adam Pompey’s support run, but when Johnson fakes to pass and straightens off his right foot, Best has no choice but to turn in. There is a split-second for Johnson to work with here and he plays it to perfection.

The reverse-angle shows it best.

With just two steps towards Best’s inside shoulder, Johnson gets his man to bite before popping the pass up for Pompey, who strolls through untouched.

With Johnson playing at the line and at speed, and with Pompey timing his involvement here to perfection, I’m not sure how you’re supposed to defend this. Champagne footy from Johnson and the Warriors.

Tyson Frizell – I wasn’t sure how much footy was left in those old legs, but Frizell wound back the clock in Round 6. It’s not the first time we’ve seen him chase down an outside back from the far side of the field, but his effort on a runaway Edward Kosi set the tone for the rest of the match. Frizell was everywhere on both sides of the ball for the Knights, scoring an opportunistic try himself and making 36 crunching tackles for one miss.

Christian Welch – Played his best game since returning from an ACL injury to be instrumental in Melbourne’s big win over the Sydney Roosters. I’ve got him as the best defensive prop in the NRL and he validated that call with a number of crucial defensive involvements in Round 6. He led the Storm’s line-speed all night and cleaned up everything around the ruck to limit Easts’ momentum through the middle third. Since conceding 38 points against the Gold Coast in Round 3, the Storm have allowed their opposition to score just five tries in 240 minutes of football. Welch has been at the forefront of that improvement.

Phillip Sami – The former Queensland Origin winger had spiders on him in Round 6, playing out his best game in the NRL in recent memory. Making the most of a plan to shift the ball in yardage, Sami repeatedly cut back in-field to bust tackles and chew up easy metres as the Titans worked upfield. He finished with 275 metres from 18 carries, busting an absurd 14 tackles and making three linebreaks in the process. In a weekend packed with hattricks (and a four-try haul to Dylan Edwards), Sami’s individual performance still stands out.

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