Jase has taken lead on The Josh Hodgson Experience so far this season but I’m jumping on board for the latest chapter. The veteran hooker was instrumental in helping Parramatta to an early lead on Friday night, asking questions around the ruck to compress the defence and create scoring opportunities on the scrum-lines.
Hodgson’s combination with Junior Paulo is one we circled in the pre-season and they played their best game as a duo in NRL Round 9. Paulo’s ability to generate ruck speed and collapse the defensive line with a hit-up, offload or decoy immediately led to points for the Eels as they set up early on Newcastle’s line.
Spotting Kurt Mann and Jackson Hastings defending next to each other on the line here, Hodgson sends Paulo straight at them.
Tyson Frizell is forced into the tackle as Paulo keeps his feet, meaning Hastings and Mann again end up beside each other on the following play. Hodgson again targets the two smaller bodies, this time shaping to hit Shaun Lane one-off the ruck before throwing out the back to Dylan Brown:
Like Paulo, Lane’s big body is a threat at this range and he sucks two Knights defenders in with his decoy here. Hodgson plays his part perfectly too. It doesn’t look like much, but the few steps he takes from behind the ruck engages Frizell at marker and isolates Mann on his own line. Asked to make his second defensive effort in as many tackles, Mann can’t get a good shot on Brown when he cranks off the left foot and burrows low.
In Parramatta’s next foray into Newcastle territory, it was Paulo again who triggered a scoring action on the following tackle.
Carting the ball into the line midway through the set, Paulo swivels and throws a pass across the face of Wiremu Greig to pitch J’Maine Hopgood into half a hole. The big Samoan makes this look easy but the skill of this action cannot be understated.
Paulo’s pass helps Hopgood to a quick play-the-ball as Newcastle scramble, and Hodgson’s involvement again sums things up smartly. He takes a single step out of dummy half which engages Daniel Saifiti at A-defender, but is careful not to overplay his hand and close the space before passing. Mann is too lateral off his line when Moses takes possession and Saifiti can’t shut the gates on his inside when the Eels straighten up.
Given his influence on the result, it surprised to see Paulo only registered 91 running metres in this one. It was a quality over quantity approach in Round 9 as Paulo caused havoc with the second-phase play he generated in yardage.
With a show of the ball and a step off his right foot, Paulo isolates Jacob Saifiti in the line to get an offload away. Bryce Cartwright continued his promising start to the season to nail his involvement in this passage and find Clint Gutherson in support. A bobble in the grounding is the only thing that denies Parramatta here.
Paulo was involved in another no-try midway through the second half, doing things no 123kg prop-forward should be doing.
Keep an eye on Paulo as he runs the lead decoy for Hopgood here. Seeing Hopgood is standing in the tackle, Paulo reloads on the play to receive the offload in support. Wrapping around like any good half, Paulo puts on some footwork to tiptoe around two Knights defenders, engage a third and pop a pass outside to Cartwright. Like the face-ball for Hopgood in the first half, the skill Paulo displays here is just unfair as Moses goes close to scoring in the corner.
After such a dominant performance in attack, it was only fitting that Paulo scored the last try of the match. He crashed over in the 69th minute thanks to the work of Hodgson at dummy-half in the lead up.
Hodgsons first act is to send the 124kg Grieg at an 86kg Pheonix Crossland on the line. A pass from Hodgson off the deck this time allows Greig to make one-on-one contact with Crossland and he very nearly burrows over himself.
Frizell has turned in to help his hooker complete the tackle, and both are under fatigue as Hodgson doubles up on the play.
Hodgson fakes to drop Paulo underneath which engages Frizell in the line. Paulo’s decoy leaves Crossland isolated once again when Hopgood carts it back in behind the ruck and stands in the tackle to get an offload away. Looking for support, Hopgood finds none other than Paulo who has reloaded on the play. To put this kind of footwork on – at his size and at that point in the game – is frankly ridiculous as Paulo slips past Saifiti with a right-foot step to score under the dot.
When we said Hodgson was a perfect fit on paper for this Parramatta Eels side, this is exactly what we meant. His ability to pass forwards into positive involvements around the ruck gives the Eels one of the more potent middle-third attacks in the NRL. If Moses and Gutherson ice a few more half-chances in Round 9, Paulo finishes this game with one try and three or four try involvements – outrageous numbers for a front rower.
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the North Queensland Cowboys
It’s not often we see such a one-sided contest in the NRL. A knock-on from Kyle Feldt in their first set of the game set the tone as the Cowboys spent the best part of 80 minutes either defending their own line or working off it. They finished with 44% possession and completed 27 sets to Cronulla’s 39 to concede a net -600 metres in yardage and miss a worrying 38 tackles.
Cronulla’s pack led by Braeden Hamlin-Uele dominated the ruck area. They played a physical, aggressive brand of footy – particularly in defence – to win almost every one-on-one match up across the park. Jake Granville was targetted by the Sharks in yardage to good effect which might force Todd Payten to tinker with his forward rotation next week.
Scoreboard pressure and fatigue compounded the issue for the Cowboys, who made nine errors and conceded eight penalties, two six-again infringements and two sin-bins. They never looked likely in this one.
“We often talk about rugby league being an 80 minute game, but the Cowboys lost this one in the first 20 minutes.” – NRL Round 9 Team Scores & Grades
NRL Round 9 Shout Outs
Siosifa Talakai – It was all one-way traffic for the Sharks in NRL Round 9, which proved the perfect storm for Talakai to go to work. He was his usual destructive self on the left edge (21 runs, 201 metres, 6 tackle busts) but some of his passing involvements were as good as you’ll see.
It’s the kind of performance that earned Talakai a NSW Origin jersey around this time last year. He dominates when the Sharks are on the front foot and finished as one of their best in this one.
Adam Reynolds – He ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard in NRL Round 9 but it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. Reynolds was everywhere for the Broncos in this one as he took it to his former club. His vision and passing on either edge poked holes in the Rabbitohs line from kick-off to fulltime, and it was only a desperate Souths defence that prevented Brisbane from turning those half-breaks into points. Reynolds also made some killer reads in defence, identifying when Cameron Murray was passing out the back to pinch an offload or shut the play down with a jamming tackle.
Campbell Graham – He’s the NRL’s leading try scorer at time of writing and is inching closer to his maiden Sky Blue jersey. Graham’s 11 tries from nine games has certainly helped his case but I wonder if he would currently be considered an Origin prospect if he wasn’t the tip of the spear in the Rabbitohs attack this season. In reality, he’s been playing like this for a few years now without any of the recognition – even his selection in the Kangaroos squad last year was widely criticised. But after a few tries and highlight moments like this…
… the rest of the NRL is finally catching on. Glory Glory.
Jahream Bula try saver – Centimetres out from the tryline and in the pouring rain, Jahream Bula’s try saving tackle on Nathan Cleary was superb. His repeat defensive efforts have already stood out, two games into his NRL career – great signs for a kid with cleary attacking upside. Loving watching him play.
Jake Averillo – He’s been outstanding all season but the two-try haul in NRL Round 9 has everyone taking notice. Averillo is a smart footballer. I had him pencilled into the fullback position for 2023 but he’s making a fist of right-centre, where his speed, hands and vision have netted him four tries and four assists in nine games. It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs manage all of this with Stephen Crichton arriving at the club next year.