NRL Repeat Set: Round 24

Recap the latest round of NRL action with the Repeat Set: Talking points, highlights, lowlights and the Play of the Round.

Here’s your Repeat Set for Round 24 of the 2021 NRL season:

• How the Eels weathered the Storm
• Things I Liked
• A round to remember for…Stefano Utoikamanu
• A round to forget for…Latrell Mitchell
• Play of the Round: South Sydney Rabbitohs
• Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary

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How the Eels weathered the Storm

“It’s the loss they needed.”

I’ve never been quite on board with that statement. I’m not sure many coaches have driven off from a game following a loss and thought “that’s just what we needed.”

However, when it comes to the horror four-game losing streak the Parramatta Eels endured between Round 19 and 22, the string of consecutive defeats may have saved their season.

For better or worse, Parramatta were blessed with a favourable draw to start the season. In hindsight, it made them look better than they really were as they ran up big scores on poor teams. It papered over the cracks in attack that the Roosters, Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles ripped open.

We’ve talked plenty about the bad Eels here throughout the season. To sum it up, they’ve displayed a tendency to take the easy route to the try line. They look too wide too early and don’t always earn the right to find points on the edges.

RELATED: Eels haven’t evolved, now they’re getting left behind

What those losses have done is force the Eels to change. They’ve learned that scoring points down the edges doesn’t come quite so easily against the good teams. It requires patience and a game plan that forces the defence to compress in the middle and work hard on the slide. That’s exactly what happened in the build-up to Parramatta’s first three tries as they beat Melbourne 22-10 on Saturday night.

A strong Isaiah Papali’i, Nathan Brown or Junior Paulo carry – of which there were plenty – often acted as a trigger for the Eels to shift the ball. Instead of going from one side of the field to the other as they have done in the past, Parramatta set things up by destabilizing the defensive line through a destructive run, quick play-the-ball, or a combination of both.

10th Minute – Blake Ferguson

Junior Paulo and Isaiah Papali’i are both involved in the build-up to this one. The key to these rather ineffective looking carries is in their strength to stay on their feet for as long as possible. In both instances, there are four Melbourne players involved in the play – three tacklers and one more out the back watching for an offload.

As the Eels crash through the middle of the field, Moses is setting up his shape down the left edge. He sets Paulo and the hard-running Marata Niukore in front of him to run a double lead at Melbourne’s defence around the ruck. Executed to perfection, Moses is presented with a four on two overlap by the time he takes possession on the outside of Niukore’s shoulder.

The defence reacts accordingly and forces Moses to throw the riskier floater over the top which Blake Ferguson just manages to keep up with to score in the corner. Very nice.

38th Minute – Haze Dunster

This try started two minutes earlier and followed a similar pattern.

Paulo takes a carry up the middle before Papali’i pinballs his way to the centre. On the shift, Bryce Cartwright is one off the ruck and angles in towards the inside shoulder of the A defender while Paulo also provides Moses with an option short. Instead, Moses finds Dylan Brown at the back who tips Shaun Lane onto Jahrome Hughes.

Awarded a penalty in good ball 90 seconds later, Parramatta ran the same play with one slight variation.

Again it’s Papali’i acting as the trigger as he settles to the right post. There is the same shape with different faces: Brown is one off the ruck and angling back in behind this time, Paulo is the short option for Moses who again plays out the back, but this time, and with Hughes holding on the back rower (it’s Cartwright this time) who just took the ball in this position a set earlier, Brown fires it out to Gutherson who sends Haze Dunster over in the corner.

That’s the sort of patient build-up we haven’t always seen from Parramatta when under pressure this year.

51st Minute – Blake Ferguson

Like the Dunster try, we saw a hint of what was to come before Ferguson scored his second in the 51st minute.

Nathan Brown is the trigger this time. Dylan Brown drops the rampaging lock forward back underneath and he charges back at the group of defenders that have just completed the last tackle. Parramatta sees that as a sign to shift and search down the right edge through Will Penisini. He hits a nice line to force a legs tackle out of Justin Olam before Gutherson and the Eels hit the short side and go close in the corner.

Eight minutes later and again following Brown being dropped off into a similar area of the field, the Eels look to the right. Cameron Munster has a tendency to fly out in front of his line and Moses knows it. He heads straight for the five-eighth, and with Olam mindful of Penesini’s carry earlier, the two Storm defenders are turned inside out as Gutherson sweeps to the outside and puts Ferguson over in the corner.

Those are three tries that are all very different but follow similar principles designed around their brutal ball-carrying middle forwards. Parramatta isn’t short of destructive middles and dangerous ball carriers on the edge. The difference between the good Eels and bad Eels is using them effectively and being patient with the ball.

Faced with the best defence in the NRL and a Panthers side that is unrivalled in its patience in attack, we’re going to learn whether or not this 80 minutes is a flash in the pan or a sign of things to come in September.

Effort In Defence

For all of the good work the Eels did in attack, they made sure not to waste it with poor efforts in defence.

Parramatta’s line speed through the middle was top tier all night. They locked the front door around the ruck and didn’t allow Melbourne to storm over the advantage line and play on the front foot through the middle like they’re used to doing. Nathan Brown’s intensity set a standard that the rest of the side replicated throughout the 80 minutes.

They defended as though they were a man down out wide at times. Brad Arthur appears to have instructed his side to stay tight through the scrum lines and effectively force the Storm wide. While flying down the edges in yardage sets is one of Melbourne’s greatest strengths, Parramatta did exceptionally well in defending it.

Willing to give up five or ten metres here or there, Parramatta’s wing and centres sat back in defence to buy their inside men time to work from the inside out. It takes a certain level of effort for this approach to be successful, but Parramatta kept producing the goods.

This scramble style defence often results in high missed tackle counts and Parramatta did miss more tackles and register more ineffective tackles than they have averaged this season. They also gave up seven line breaks. Melbourne averages 7.1 line breaks per game and we’ve seen how those usually end.

Not this week.

Hughes breakaway in the second half is a prime example of both Parramatta’s effort in defence and the deliberate nature in which they gave away pockets of space for the greater good.

The Storm half scampers away from his own line before Nicho Hynes and Ryan Papenhuyzen link up just over half way. Impressively, Parramatta has six players in the shot as Papenhuyzen is tackled to the ground. By the time he rises to play the ball, the defensive line has reset.

As Melbourne shift the ball and search down the left edge, the Parramatta defence slides, giving up the metres out wide as players work from the inside to close it down. Joey Lussick, in particular, is crucial to this shift being shut down.

This level of defence is difficult to keep up for a full season. However, there is no reason Parramatta can’t find it in themselves to defend like this for another five games in 2021. This is premiership-winning quality whether Melbourne was off their game or not.

The key now is to repeat it in Round 25.

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Things I Liked?

Manu Magic

Joseph Manu is going to get paaaaaaaaid.

Lost amongst the controversy of having his face rearranged was Manu’s incredible try in the 16th minute.

He has caught that ball with one hand in traffic…

Outrageous.

I particularly like seeing defenders more interested in running players off the ball concede points. One day, maybe, the focus will return to the contest in the air and escorts won’t be so common.

Sutton’s Spray

Crowds are back but they’re relatively small so we’re still hearing a lot more of the chat on the field than we’re used to at the moment.

Gerard Sutton’s call on Nathan Brown flopping around for a penalty on Saturday night was a little bit different: “There’s a bit of milk in there, Nathan!”

Berry Nice

The Warriors like to hit the edges and play with a lot of width but aren’t set up especially well to break defences open out wide right now. Adam Pompey is solid, Euan Aitken is a strong ball carrier but doesn’t let go of it all that often and is playing in the back row at the moment, and Peta Hiku is leaving the club after this season.

They need a little bit of spark out wide and it could come in the form of Rocco Berry.

Oscar and I have talked about Zac Lomax a lot recently which may contribute to the shades of Lomax I’m seeing in Berry. He is great on his feet and deceptively strong for his size. We even saw a little flick pass from Berry to Dalin Watene-Zelezniak on Friday night not too dissimilar to the flick Lomax gets out to Mikaele Ravalawa.

Berry is still only 20-years-old. He is relatively new to rugby league and the lack of full time footy with disrupted reserve grade competitions haven’t helped either. I like the look of his potential already, though.

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A round to remember for…

Stefano Utoikamanu is the real deal.

The 2021 NRL season could be considered a slight breakout season for the 21-year-old. He is now a bonafide starter and must surely be one of the first names Michael Maguire writes down on this team sheet every Tuesday. There is A LOT more to come out of this kid, though.

Payne Haas has set the bar for young props at an unachievable level. He is a freak and is on track to become one of the best to ever play the game if he keeps going like this. Utoikamanu isn’t at Haas’ level but he is a mighty fine young prop nonetheless. Any other time he would be talked about as a rising star and best young prop in the game.

At 191 cm and 115 kg, he is a monster. He moves exceptionally well for somebody his size and his motor is grossly underrated at the moment. He has played over 55 minutes in five of his last six games and is active on both sides of the ball throughout.