Unpack a scrum of three talking points before every round of the NRL season. In his feature this week, Oscar identifies the deciding factors in Friday night’s matchup between the Rabbitohs and the Sea Eagles.
Centre-Field Scrum – What’s centre frame in the Rugby League lens this week?
South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
On paper this is clearly the game of the round. Two sides missing key players in their pack and backline, two sides expected to jostle it out for similar rungs on the premiership ladder, and two sides coming off a loss in Round 7. Game on.
I’m not sure we’ve seen their best just yet, but we’ve certainly seen the worst of South Sydney over the first seven weeks of the competition. Their ball security and completion rates are a real concern for coach Jason Demetriou in his first year as head coach, and it’s something the Rabbitohs need to fix – fast.
When they do hold the ball though, Souths are finding points easily enough despite the absence of some key attacking personnel. Lachlan Ilias is warming to first-grade nicely on the right hand side of the field and his combination with Keaon Koloamatangi and Campbell Graham has become a focal point of Souths attack in 2022
I’m loving Ilias’ involvements with the ball in hand this year. He’s getting the most out of Koloamatangi as a strike weapon in good ball:
And as a decoy in right edge shifts:
This second action is an issue for Souths at the moment – Josh Mansour’s lack of speed on the wing is limiting the effectiveness of South Sydney’s right edge shifts. Opposing defensive systems can tighten up on Koloamatangi and Graham knowing they’re a chance of herding Mansour into touch when the ball comes wide. It’s an even bigger concern in defence. Mansour is experienced enough to rely on good positioning to offset his lack of top-line speed, but marking up on Manly’s outside backs is another question (more on that below).
For all the good Ilias and Souths’ right edge is doing at the moment though, I think we’ll see the Rabbitohs search down their favoured left edge on Friday night. The Sea Eagles have conceded 67% (16 of 24) of tries down the right hand side of the field in 2022. South Sydney mightn’t have a Siosifa Talakai in the centres this week but they’ll still like their chances against an inexperienced and unfamiliar edge unit of Ethan Bullemor, Daly Cherry-Evans, Tolutau Koula and Jason Saab.
While Walker will be at the forefront of anything South Sydney do down that side of the field this week, it’s Blake Taaffe I’m watching out for. Taaffe had 29 receipts against the Bulldogs from fullback and only 16 against the Tigers last week. He’s still very much in rookie territory but he’s shown he can execute the final pass if Walker can get him into the right areas on the park:
That little double-pump just before Taaffe releases the ball is what causes Brent Naden to bite, allowing Alex Johnston to stride over untouched. It doesn’t look all that important but those subtleties are what separates the good ballplayers from the great and I want to see what Taaffe can do with a little more good ball this week.
For the Sea Eagles, the loss of Haumole Olakau’atu this week will hit hard. His combination with Cherry-Evans is already one of the best half-backrower pairings in the comp and while Bullemor is a sound replacement, he will force Manly-Warringah to play a little differently in attack.
In Olakau’atu’s absence I think we might see Kieran Foran be a little more active in good ball. Foran was superb in a losing side against Cronulla in Round 7 and I’m looking out for he and Reuben Garrick to link up down their left edge on Friday night. At 31 years of age, Foran is still digging into the line like the best of them and the space he’s creating for his outside men will ring alarm bells for Mansour on South Sydney’s right wing.
I’ve got this shape circled in the notebook as something to look out for in this one:
Foran puts himself into a position we usually see hookers fill through the middle of the field (Blayke Brailey and Api Koroisau both do this extremely well) in long shifts like this. The changing tempo of Foran’s run and the way he positions his body with the ball out in front has Cronulla’s middle defence sitting on their heels and they can’t react in time when Foran quickly passes it along. Quick hands from Cherry-Evans gets Garrick at a retreating defensive line and with options around him, and he sums it up beautifully to put Christian Tuipolotu over in the corner.
I’ll be very surprised if Manly don’t try something like this on Friday night and try to beat Mansour for speed around the outside.
Head Noise – What’s living rent free in my head this week?
Nothing rattles footy fans (and players) more than when the head noise kicks in. To avoid this as best we can, I’m writing down anything ringing around my head each week and hopefully we can figure a few things out along the way.
– Aaron Schoupp
– Jacob Kiraz’s debut
– Kyle Feldt’s genius
– Tom Gilbert signing
– Cody Walker’s short kicking game
Aaron Schoupp – I can’t believe it took seven weeks for Schoupp to land a starting spot in the centres (but also, I can). He limited Kotoni Staggs to just two tackle busts last week after the Broncos centre broke 22 tackles in the fortnight prior. He also produced this for Canterbury’s first try:
With Staggs getting involved in the previous tackle, Broncos’ backrower Jordan Riki finds himself out on the edge down the short side. Matt Burton does well to expose that weakness by giving his centre early ball, and Schoupp sizes up Riki before skipping to his outside to draw in Selwyn Cobbo and get a miracle offload away. The way Schoupp uses his left hand to fend both Riki and Cobbo away from the ball and give himself room to offload was all class.
Jacob Kiraz’s debut – It’s unclear if or when we’ll see him in first grade again, but Kiraz certainly gave us something to remember in his NRL debut. From 13 energetic carries Kiraz made 133 metres, seven tackle busts and four offloads and it was no surprise to see him succumb to cramps late in the game given his involvements throughout. A superb individual effort in a losing side.
Kyle Feldt genius – I loved this from Feldt last weekend.
Too often we see wingers in the NRL get moments like this wrong. There’s a few obscure, lesser known rules around finding touch from different kicks but almost every week we see wingers fail to make a kick out on the full simply by placing a foot over the line. Feldt isn’t one of those wingers. He showed wonderful smarts and patience with this short drop-out to win back possession for his team while they were down to 12 men. A huge play in the context of the game and great to see a winger nail one of these intricate little moments.
