Unpack a scrum of three talking points before every round of the NRL season. This week: Luai v Moses, Staggs’ return and the most unlikely of ball-playing locks.
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 me as we unpack the scrum that is the NRL each week.
Centre-Field Scrum – What’s centre-frame in the rugby league lens this week?
Penrith Panthers v Parramatta Eels.
There’s a bit of an Origin theme to this matchup on Friday night given Nathan Cleary’s recent shoulder injury.
Mitchell Moses is on the shortlist of playmakers touted to slot into NSW’s vacated halfback position and a strong performance this weekend would do his chances no harm, although an Adam Reynolds recall is probably the safer of the two options. On the other side of the park, Jarome Luai’s continued rise from bench X-factor player to first-class playmaker has seen him catapult into contention for the #7 jumper with one of Jack Wighton or Cody Walker to potentially come in at five-eighth.
Game on.
If you said 18 months ago that Luai was being considered at halfback for New South Wales you probably would’ve been laughed out of the room. But with Cleary stealing the headlines alongside him, Luai has quietly gone about his business to become one of the most complete five-eighths in the competition.
Luai is always going to be a running threat with the ball in hand. He didn’t break the line in Game 2 of this year’s Origin series, but we saw more of his electric footwork and willingness to challenge the defense like he does in clubland.
If Penrith (or NSW in this action) ever win a quick play-the-ball, Luai is always pushing up on the left edge looking to isolate tired forwards around the ruck.
Having Cleary calling the shots alongside him frees Luai up to pick his moments like this, but with more touches of the footy and more time on the ball we can expect a few jinking runs from Luai at halfback this weekend. There’s more to his carries than fleet feet and vision, however.
Luai has added that Cleary-trademarked tempo change and deception to his ball-playing across the field. The subtle ability to manipulate defenders like this is what separates the good playmakers from the great – creating opportunities in attack instead of just reacting to opportunities already there.
It doesn’t look like much – and it doesn’t result in points here either – but the intricacies of Luai’s movements as he dishes the ball left and right in these actions is indicative of the time he spends at training with the best halfback in the game. He gets Matt Burton playing at a retreating defensive line in the first movement which allows Stephen Crichton to win the tackle and get a quick play-the-ball, before skipping across three Storm defenders in the second action to get Tyrone May one-on-one with Cameron Munster. Melbourne were good enough to shut things down here, but Luai’s ability to create for his teammates impressed.
He’s always had the vision and the skills, but the timing and control in Luai’s decision making with the ball is where I’ve witnessed the biggest growth. My earliest memories of Luai in the NRL are of him bouncing across the field like a pinball, desperately searching for half a gap in the line on almost every play. Compare then to now and it’s night and day.
Luai finished the 2020 season with a competition-high 23 try assists. He’s currently ranked equal second in that department with 14 so far in 2021 – Cody Walker and Tom Trbojevic (both 15), Nicho Hynes and Nathan Cleary (14) and Jahrome Hughes and Scott Drinkwater (13) round out a closely bunched top six. They are all elite attacking playmakers but where Luai and Cleary stand out is in their ability to build pressure and make the right decision with the ball almost every time. Per FoxSports Lab, Cleary leads the league for forced drop-outs with 15. In second place is Luai with 12. Comparatively, Walker, Trbojevic, Hynes, Hughes and Drinkwater have combined for a total 18 forced drop-outs between them in 2021.
Not only can they hand out tries for fun, but neither Cleary or Luai are prone to pushing that final pass or rolling the dice with a low-percentage play. If it’s not on – just drop it into the ingoal and we’ll go again. It’s an area of Cleary’s game that Luai mightn’t have been able to emulate in years past but the numbers suggest he is more than capable.
For the Eels, just about everything good from Mitch Moses this year has come from the boot.
He is equal second in the competition for attacking kicks (per FoxSports Lab) and most of his 12 try assists so far this year have come from kicks just like this.
With Ryan Matterson, Shaun Lane, Waqa Blake, Clint Gutherson, Maika Sivo – the list goes on – all genuine threats under the high ball, Moses is never shy of targets for a well-placed kick on the goal-line. It is horrible to defend against because if the kick is accurate – which it often is with Moses – it’s essentially a one-on-one situation for a flat-footed defender against an attacker with forward momentum. Goodluck.
In terms of Origin, this all works in Moses’ favour.
None of Luai, Jack Wighton or Cody Walker are noted big-kickers and if Brad Fittler wants a like-for-like replacement for Cleary in that department then Moses is the better fit. For the Eels, however, Moses’ kicking game has masked what has been an awkward, clunky Parramatta attack at times this season. Producing winning fifth tackle options is all well and good but for the next few weeks I’m on the lookout for how Moses and the Eels use the ball in attacking field position. I need to see Moses create scoring opportunities for his teammates with the ball in hand rather than just wait to hoist it skyward on the last.
Right Scrum-Line – Who’s feeling the pressure this week?
Kotoni Staggs is back for the Brisbane Broncos… and not at five-eighth.
Brodie Croft has somehow made his way back into the halves instead while Kevvie Walters has a centre and a dummy-half warming the bench, but let’s try and focus on what we know.
Staggs is a very, very good attacking centre.
Staggs’ return strengthens what has been a very problematic position for the Broncos in 2021. Only the Newcastle Knights (36) have conceded more tries down their right edge than Brisbane’s 32 so far this year. Jesse Arthars has tried hard but his output in attack is non-comparable with Staggs’ and defensively he’s been poor.
The problem for the Broncos is that Staggs isn’t a great defender either.
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