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 13 of the 2022 NRL season:
- Queensland Maroons State of Origin Preview
- Better from the Bulldogs
- It was a round to remember for… Canberra Raiders
- It was a round to forget for… Nathan Brown
- Rugby League World Cup Hype Train
- Play of the Round: Cowboys attacked summed up
Queensland Maroons State of Origin Preview
The 2022 State of Origin Series kicks off this week, so with a reduced round in the NRL limiting the talking points, we’re using this spot here to preview the Queensland Maroons. Oscar has the New South Wales Blues covered in Take the Two this week.
Team list analysis
1. Kalyn Ponga, 2. Selwyn Cobbo, 3. Val Holmes, 4. Dane Gagai, 5. Xavier Coates, 6. Cameron Munster, 7. Daly Cherry-Evans, 8. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, 9. Ben Hunt, 10. Josh Papalii, 11. Kurt Capewell, 12. Felise Kaufusi, 13. Reuben Cotter, 14. Harry Grant, 15. Lindsay Collins, 16. Pat Carrigan, 17. Jeremiah Nanai
The Queensland Maroons have named an interesting blend of youth and experience for the 2022 series opener. No doubt desperate to put up a bigger fight than they did in the previous series while also preparing for the next, new coach Billy Slater hasn’t made too many outlandish selections for his first series in charge.
Leaving David Fifita out is a head-scratcher. Still, an injury to the backrower perhaps helped Slater make the decision for him. The squad is otherwise as expected for the most part. The backline is flashy, the spine full of points, the pack hard-working and the bench versatile.
Selwyn Cobbo is somewhat of a surprise inclusion. He is still early into his NRL career and didn’t look entirely comfortable under the bright lights to start. The Daily Telegraph rightfully pointed out that Cobbo leads the NRL with 25 errors this season. They did, however, fail to mention that 19 of those came in the first six rounds. He’s a different player to what he was two months ago and Slater has selected the more recent version.
Ben Hunt’s missed tackle numbers have also rated a mention. He leads the NRL in missed tackles through 12 rounds. Missed tackle numbers can often be misleading, and to make them less relevant in this context, Hunt is moving into the middle where he will be packed in between two big forwards to help him in contact. Still, seeing Hunt’s name in the #9 jersey came as a surprise. While the idea around sending Harry Grant onto the field when there is some fatigue in the opposition’s legs has merit, the game was gone at that point last year. The Maroons need to start strong and put the Blues under early pressure. Grant is the one to do that with his scheming around the ruck.
Pat Carrigan and Jeremiah Nanai provide Slater with different options off the bench. At the very least, both are capable of providing instant impact. Carrigan is playing the best football of his career and has excelled as both a ball carrier and ball player for the Broncos this season. His likely rotation with Reuben Cotter ensures the Maroons play with pace and variation through the middle throughout the full 80 minutes. Meanwhile, Nanai is already a top attacking threat in the NRL. His minutes may be limited depending on the game state, but if Queensland are in search of points late in the piece, he will be an option for Slater off the bench.
Predicted Profile
The makeup of the Queensland pack suggests they’re going to take a classic Origin approach to this one and keep it relatively tight.
Josh Papalii and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui only know one way and will complete the tough carries through the middle. On the edges, neither Felise Kaufusi nor Kurt Capewell are game breakers. Instead, they will make their impact by running hard lines and look to hold up the defence on the occasions the Maroons do look wide.
Reuben Cotter and Patrick Carrigan can provide the link on long-side shifts and slot in at pivot. However, it’s their work short around the middle that can be most dangerous. You can see here how Carrigan’s threat as a runner allowed him to isolate Payne Haas onto a single defender before the big prop released an offload.
Cotter can provide a similar touch and with Papalii’s offload ability in contact, expect the second-phase to be a big feature of Queensland’s yardage game once they work through the early arm-wrestle.
With the hard work done in the middle, the Maroons aren’t short of attacking options out wide. The combination between Kalyn Ponga and Cameron Munster on the left edge is particularly exciting.
Ponga has spent time on both sides of the field for the Knights this season. However, he is still his most dangerous down the left edge and how he works with Munster to dominate short sides will play a big part in how Queensland uses the ball. Both look their best when getting downhill one off the ruck and attacking retreating defensive lines. They can beat the defence with their feet or with a pass, and one running off the other won’t give the Blues defence time to settle.
I picked out this near-try for the Knights a couple of weeks ago and it’s an action the Maroons will surely try to emulate.
Ponga takes the ball off the ruck and runs straight at the A defender before skipping outside and creating the space out wide. The defence sits on their heels when Ponga is in this spot and that provides Bradman Best, on this occasion, with the space to move.
The Knights then settle it back to the left tramline. Now just imagine Ponga sweeping back around to the open side and forcing James Tedesco into making a difficult decision both for himself and his teammate peeling out of the tackle.
Munster then slots himself into the short side and Queensland’s dangerous left edge runs at them again.
Where the Blues are likely to plan their attack around moving the ball wide and stretching the defence, the Maroons are best-placed to play short and sharp. Both Munster and Daly Cherry-Evans look for opportunities to swing around the ruck, and with Carrigan or Cotter available to take the ball at first receiver on the long side, it is likely to be a hallmark of the Queensland attack alongside their aerial raids directed towards Selwyn Cobbo and Xavier Coates out wide.
Where it will be won
The opening exchanges are hugely important for Queensland. Blown off the park in Game I last year, the series was over shortly after it began.
We’ve covered Queensland’s potential to offload the ball and setup for short side raids already, but none of that will be possible without first laying the platform through the middle.
How Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Josh Papalii impact the game from kickoff will determine a lot of Queensland’s fortunes on the night. Fa’asuamaleaui, in particular, has been outstanding in a terrible Titans side this year.
The longer the two teams stay close on the scoreboard, the better Queensland will get in this one. While the Blues have made a habit out of looking to start strong and blow the opposition off the park early, the Maroons are more likely to engage in the grind and look to wear their opposition down.
Strong carries, a low error count and line speed will be the focus to start. From there, and perhaps it lines up with Grant’s introduction to the game, Queensland can be a little bit more expansive and turn the fatigue in the opposition defence into dangerous short side raids.
Better from the Bulldogs
It didn’t look as though Mick Potter was prepared to shake things up too much after taking over Trent Barrett as coach of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. He continued to name similar sides to Barrett and produced similar results throughout his first fortnight in charge but made a handful of changes in Round 13. While the result remained the same, the Bulldogs looked a little bit better on Friday night.
Potter made the long overdue change at fullback and handed Jake Avrillo the spot. Having advocated for Corey Allan to be given first crack, Averillo impressed enough to warrant selection there again in Round 14. Similarly, Josh Jackson’s move away from the middle and out to the edge has been on my list of Bulldogs fixes for weeks and is one Potter should stick with from here.
Viliame Kikau spent the first half rushing out on Kyle Flanagan to close down Bulldogs shifts. Averillo and Jackson worked well together to use that knowledge and create a dangerous opportunity close to the line.
Averillo produced a handful of rookie moments but otherwise looked threatening with the ball. Another rookie, Jacob Kiraz, floated from one side of the field to the other and popped up in an attacking shape I’ll dig into a little bit deeper in the Round 14 Notepad.
They’re running out of time and the majority of Canterbury-Bankstown’s points still come from Matt Burton’s boot. However, there are slight signs of improvement and reason to believe they can develop enough throughout the year to avoid back-to-back wooden spoons.
A round to remember for…
The Canberra Raiders sat at 14th on the NRL ladder with two wins from eight games after Round 8.
Ricky Stuart was a coach under pressure and the Raiders looked like wooden spoon contenders.
“The Raiders run for 1,382 metres per game to be the worst yardage team in the competition.” – Round 8 Repeat Set: Coaches under pressure, what is going wrong and how to fix it
Now averaging over 100 more metres at 1,490 metres per game to rank 13th in the NRL, and improvement in the yardage game is translating into better performances and results. It’s so often a measure of good football teams and the importance of the yardage game is reflected in Canberra’s recent improvements.
The Green Machine have won four out of their last five including an impressive 22-16 win over the Sydney Roosters in Round 13. Joseph Tapine and Josh Papalii have been exceptional in yardage and offloads. The Raiders, in general, are offloading at will for 12.8 per game. They’re starting to stick more often including this outrageous show of skill from Xavier Savage on Sunday:
Zac Woolford’s introduction to the side has provided the Raiders with some consistency at dummy half and allows them to employ Tom Starling in his more effective role off the bench. Out wide, the first-choice backline has finally taken shape with Matt Timoko and Seb Kris, in particular, earning their spots in the centres.
The best periods of Raiders rugby league in recent years have come with an element of toughness. A resilience and willingness to get into the grind for 80 minutes against superior teams to at least give themselves the chance to steal it late. That resilience and willingness wasn’t there to start the year but Stuart has inspired an improvement in recent weeks.
Finals football looked out of reach for the Raiders five weeks ago. Now, the expectation is for them to continue climbing the ladder and pinch a spot before the end of Round 25.
A round to forget for…
The New Zealand Warriors will play next week, but will Nathan Brown be there to coach them?
If he is still there this week and next, will he still be around for the long-awaited return to New Zealand in Round 16?
The players aren’t performing like they want him at the club. We’re beyond the poor game plan from earlier in the season now. In fact, Brown seems to have conceded his ‘playing footy’ approach and spreading the ball from side to side isn’t a winner and has directed his team more towards the middle in recent weeks. However, it has come too late. With what we’re seeing defensively (the worst defensive team in the NRL right now) this is a playing group waiting for a change in the coach’s box.
