Unpack a scrum of three talking points before every round of the NRL season. In his feature this week, Oscar takes a look at the struggling attack of the Roosters and Titans ahead of their Saturday night clash.
Centre-Field Scrum – What’s centre frame in the Rugby League lens this week?
Roosters and Titans searching for answers
It’s probably not the game of the round you’d expect nine weeks into the season but I’m really looking forward to this one. Both teams are struggling for form right now – particularly in attack – and I’m anticipating changes to how both sides use the ball this week.
For the Gold Coast Titans, an injury to David Fifita is going to force them to look elsewhere for points on Saturday.
We know they’re struggling for consistency within games and we can put a lot of that down to a very young and very inexperienced spine. Toby Sexton is doing a fair job of steering the team around the park but he needs support. Erin Clark is not an organising hooker and while I’m a fan of AJ Brimson returning to fullback and Will Smith’s efforts at five-eighth, neither profile as guys who can point and pass the Titans up the field. Until Sexton grows comfortable as the on-field general I think a collective effort might serve the Titans best this year.
I’m sounding a little 2021 with this but I’d like to see a ballplaying lock introduced to the Titans’ attack. Isaac Liu filled that role at times for the Roosters last year and can do a job but I want to see Sam McIntyre in there.
McIntyre has been executing actions like this for the Tweed Seagulls all year in the Queensland Cup. He’s a threat to the defensive line as a ball carrier but the way McIntyre can pivot and dish out the back or short belies the 190cm, 100kg frame he plays with.
The Titans currently rank 10th in the competition for line engagements with 14.9 per game. Considering the inexperience and inconsistencies in the spine, you could argue the Gold Coast are doing pretty well to sit in the middle of the pack for this stat. That being said, there’s plenty of room for improvement and one positional change would help remedy that.
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui is doing a tremendous job in the middle but he can do all these things with an ‘8’ or ‘10’ on his back, too. Injecting McIntyre into the Titans attack at lock will at the very least give Sexton another ballplayer to work with when orchestrating the attack. He’ll also help make the most of the Gold Coast’s average 63.6 support runs per game – the second most in the competition. Get him in there, Justin!
While it’s relatively easy to pinpoint where the Titans are still developing this year, the same cannot be said for the Sydney Roosters.
“I can’t put into words how keen I am to see Luke Keary and Sam Walker share the field in 2022.” – Me in our Roosters 2022 Season Preview
Nine games in and the Keary / Walker pairing certainly hasn’t kicked on like we hoped. Three different faces at dummy-half haven’t helped but after consecutive losses we can expect some changes from Trent Robinson this week. Jase has called for Tedesco to get his hands on the ball more which I don’t mind, but it’s a band-aid fix.
Forget what you’ve seen already – this Roosters side will be one of the best attacking teams in the NRL with Radley, Walker and Keary ballplaying to Tedesco in space. For all the damage Tedesco can cause at first receiver he’s undoubtedly better out wide and running at a sliding defence.
Shy of dragging Tedesco into first-receiver to spark their attack, I’d like to see the Roosters use their backrowers a little more in set up and start searching down short sides.
Angus Crichton and Sitili Tupouniua are at their best when bending the line and getting quick play-the-balls while Keary is the best half in the game down short sides for mine. I’d like to see Radley and Walker organising the long shifts on the open side and keeping Keary or Teddy free to count the numbers on the blind side.
Until then though, you could do worse than just watch every little thing Jared Waerea Hargreaves does for his side each week.
Three times last week Waerea-Hargreaves’ name popped up in my notes as he continues to defy his age and position with the involvements he has across the field.
The first was a lovely little tip-on to Crichton in good ball:
I love this shape off the tap. The Bulldogs are all loaded up to jam Waerea-Hargreaves on the first tackle which gives Crichton a nice little hole to punch through outside him. It’s not the sort of skills we usually attribute to a 108kg firebrand forward but Waerea-Hargreaves is playing as smart as he is hard right now.
The next moment I timestamped was this one:
How a prop-forward ends up diving at a winger to apply kick pressure on fifth tackle is beyond me. Having already made three tackles in this set of six, Waerea-Hargreaves finds himself at marker on fifth and last. Instead of clocking off when Matt Burton swings it wide, the big Kiwi never stops moving as he tracks the ball and it puts him in the frame when Josh Addo-Carr looks to drop it on the toe. The Bulldogs get lucky when the kick rebounds off Easts and into touch but the Roosters probably deserved the result here thanks to Waerea-Hargreaves’ efforts from the inside.
The last JWH moment from Round 8 was in the final minutes of the game when Easts were threatening a late comeback. A left edge raid got them into attacking field position and the Bulldogs were scrambling to get back onside as an offload from Tedesco hit the deck on fourth tackle. A turnover would’ve robbed Easts of their best and likely last chance to win the game, and with the stakes so high Waerea-Hargreaves produced this:
You can see Waerea-Hargreaves still working to keep up with the ball as the Roosters shift it wide on fourth tackle. As a prop forward 40 minutes into his stint, he has no right to be in the frame when Tedesco turns the ball back inside and he certainly has no right to beat multiple Bulldogs players to the loose ball, but beat them he does. Diving head first into all elbows and knees, Waerea-Hargreaves throws himself at the pill and emerges from the ruck to play the ball with a fresh set of six. Two tackles later (no prizes for guessing who took the set-up carry on tackle two) and Joseph Suaalii would dive over in the corner.
The Roosters didn’t win this one but Waerea-Hargreaves gave them every chance to do so. These kinds of efforts don’t often eventuate in losses and it’s only a matter of time before the Roosters turn things around.
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.
– Reimis Smith’s hands
– Josh Schuster is back
– Scott Drinkwater switch & wrap around play
– Joseph Suaalii
– Daejarn Asi
Reimis Smith’s hands – I’m flying the flag for Aaron Schoupp and Tom Gilbert this year but regular readers will know Reimis Smith was my boy in 2021. He profiled as a value-for-money replacement for Suliasi Vunivalu but as we now know, Melbourne have helped him develop into one of the top centres in the NRL.
Statistically he was by far and away the best defensive centre of 2021 while contributing 14 tries and three try assists with the ball, too. Eight games into 2022 and Smith has already equalled his assists tally of last year, featuring some of the softest hands you’ll see across the competition.
This was one of three quick passes Smith found Xavier Coates with. All three ended in Melbourne tries. The Storm always find ways to get the best out of their players and Smith is the perfect candidate to unlock Coates’ finishing talent out wide.
Josh Schuster is back – Schuster had three key involvements inside the first five minutes for Manly on Friday night. With his first touch he brushed off three Rabbitohs defenders on his way to a 15 metre carry towards the posts. With his second he slotted into jockey on the end of a left-edge Manly shift and threw what would have been a try assist to Christian Tuipolotu had Souths not batted the ball out. His third involvement was to lay the lead line for another backline move that again stripped Souths for numbers only for Josh Mansour to knock the ball down.
For a guy who hasn’t played since October last year it was a hell of a return to first-grade for Schuster. The difference he makes to Manly’s left edge was immediately telling and the options he offers out there as a ballplayer and runner spells attacking opportunities for Tom Trbojevic when he returns.
Scott Drinkwater switch & wrap around play – If you were still looking for evidence that Todd Payten is a good coach, here’s a little nugget that won’t show up in the highlights reels from Round 8.
This is clearly something the Cowboys have cooked up at training since moving Drinkwater to fullback. He’s a wonderful ballplayer and an electric runner of the ball – two qualities necessary to pull off a shape like this. Chad Townsend and Heilum Luki do enough to hold up the defence as Drinkwater switches back across the ruck to beat the fullback and wraps around Townsend to create the extra man. It’s only a great (or lucky) read from Hayze Perham that knocks the ball down – otherwise the Cowboys had two unmarked men in the corner. We’re going to see this one again at some point.
