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 7 of the 2022 NRL season:
- Breaking down Talakai’s 30-minute blitz
- Rabbitohs & Roosters: What’s doing?
- It was a round to remember for… Wests Tigers
- It was a round to forget for… New Zealand Warriors
- I can’t stop thinking about…
- Play of the Round: Oates flying in from the wing
Breaking down Talakai’s 30-minute blitz
We’re going all the way back to Thursday night, but some games just can’t pass without a mention.
Siosifa Talakai’s individual performance against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in Round 7 will go down as one of the best ever. He destroyed the Sea Eagles right edge defence with size, strength, speed and skill. He did it all.
But a lot needed to happen before Talakai could work his magic on the edge. The Sharks didn’t just give him the ball and wait for him to rip through the defence. Instead, they set up for the shift, played with variety in attack, and executed on their set pieces to perfection. Matt Moylan, Will Kennedy and Teig Wilton deserve a special mention for the impact they had on Talakai’s 30-minute blitz.
The 25-year-old finished the first 30 minutes of the match with two tries and three try assists so let’s take a look at how it all happened, and how it can be repeated throughout the rest of the 2022 NRL season.
Talakai’s first try:
This is the Sharks attack at its best. Long-side shifts, constant movement and plenty of options for the ball players.
They’re known for the speed at which they move the ball right now. However, it’s the slowing down through the middle and the changing tempo of Blayke Brailey’s run that creates the space out wide. He compresses the middle by digging in and using Royce Hunt as a decoy.
Talakai and Ronaldo Mulitalo are running straight at the defence at this point. The Sea Eagles edge is relatively tight but as Matt Moylan takes possession and bounces out, Talakai and Mulitalo change their line in perfect harmony to get to the outside of the defence. Even if Morgan Harper had been able to get across to cover Talakai, Mulitalo had 15 metres to make his move to the corner.
Talakai’s second try:
Talakai’s second try is somewhat similar and comes on the back of a repeat set and more of those long Sharks shifts. Notice Matt Moylan down the short side as Wilton starts to play the ball before sweeping around to take possession on the open side.
That triggers a long shift to the right side where Will Kennedy holds the ball and gets a decent play-the-ball away himself. Settling back to the middle through Hunt, the big prop releases an offload and the Sharks’ quick hands snap into action.
Haumole Olakau’atu being dragged inside the posts leaving three Sea Eagles defending half of the field is the cue. Brailey quickly releases the ball and Moylan sends it further. Talakai has plenty of work to do and his one-handed carry to have Jason Saab weary of an offload is a wonderful bit of skill along with the silky footwork we’re really not meant to see from somebody Talakai’s size.
Mulitalo’s first:
Talakai soon went from scorer to distributor to send Mulitalo over the line and the setup to his try assist started in the set prior.
The Sharks again spread the ball with Kennedy, Talakai and Mulitalo fanning out the back of Wilton’s lead run. On this occasion, Saab jams in onto Talakai which leaves space in behind the line for Kennedy to kick into. It’s a little bit cramped but the Sharks still get a good result forcing the Sea Eagles to travel 99 metres up the field.
Following an excellent defensive set which ends with Kennedy catching a Daly Cherry-Evans kick on his 40 metre line, the Sharks are soon back into attacking territory. This time the shift starts a little wider but the shape remains the same.
The Sharks trio fan out the back with Saab and Harper trying to close the space defending on the 45 degree. They do well to close it down until an outrageous Talakai offload finds Mulitalo. Again, it’s the one-handed carry and right hand fend that allows the Sharks centre to release the ball for his teammate to score.
Mulitalo’s second:
Eight minutes later and it’s the same again.
The Sharks set up on the right side and the trio are again fanned. It’s a 6-4 split for the defence which is what they want in this situation, but it’s the variation the Sharks have already thrown at the defence that has the Sea Eagles all over the place.
Cherry-Evans turns in on the lead runner but Harper doesn’t follow him. To be fair to Harper here, Cherry-Evans has probably made the wrong decision with Olakau’atu in position to handle Wilton. Still, as Cherry-Evans turns in and Harper turns out, then in… then out… Talakai is into space and holds the ball for long enough to send Mulitalo over in the corner.
Kennedy’s try:
Talakai’s third try assist in 30 minutes is just ridiculous. Again, we can copy and paste a lot of the same things mentioned above and apply them to this try.
It’s Kennedy’s vision and awareness that is also impressive. He sees Saab back for the kick and gets himself to the left edge to attack the space. You can see him constantly checking Saab’s position as he swings around. Wilton again also does a good job running the right line and his attention to detail in avoiding contact with the defender was evident throughout the match.
The speed at which the Sharks reload and fall into shape looks a lot like the Roosters when they played their very best throughout back-to-back premierships in 2018 and 2019.
But back to Talakai to wrap things up, just look at the reverse angle and the skill involved in the play.
His footwork is again sublime. If he starts to add some pre-pass footwork to his game and move before the ball gets to him, there’s no stopping him. Here he steps inside, changes his ball-carrying arm in case he needs to fend off Cherry-Evans, holds the ball in two hands to keep Saab tracking back and towards Mulitalo before putting in a perfect grubber for Kennedy to score.
Incredible.
There are some games you never forget and this is one of them. It’s one of the best 30-minute spells you’ll ever see in any sport, and it came from a bloke who needed to take a train-and-trial deal while emptying bins for a living just to get another shot in the NRL not so long ago.
But perhaps most importantly for Talakai and the Sharks, this wasn’t simply one game running riot against a dodgy edge defence. These actions are repeatable and have been repeated numerous times this season. This attack is the real deal and one that is putting the Sharks into the premiership conversation.
While they might not be as clinical as the Panthers or consistent as the Storm, the Sharks can put points on anybody on their day, and there’s no reason that day can’t come in September with the way they’re playing right now.
Rabbitohs & Roosters: What’s Doing?
It’s difficult to split the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters this week.
Both played poorly in games they should have won, and both leave me with many of the same questions.
For the Rabbitohs, the errors continue to mount up. Only the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have given the ball up more and the Rabbitohs added another 16 errors to their 2022 tally on Saturday night. That’s too many regardless of the opposition, and it’s too many for a side that needs to string together better performances with the ball. They can’t do that without it…
As for the Roosters, their attack is a huge concern right now. Playing without a genuine hooker was a good enough excuse throughout the early rounds. They do look better through the middle with Sam Verrills’ service passing players onto the ball. However, it’s been a long time since a Roosters attack has looked so directionless. They lack the trigger to shifts that has been so effective in recent years. It’s wide or nothing, and the inability to target weaknesses – even possible weaknesses – in the defence is strange to see from this side.
Moses Suli has played well this season but isn’t a noted defender. Strong in contact, he doesn’t have the speed to reliably cover the likes of James Tedesco and Joey Manu on the edge. With a rookie winger outside him, it’s an area you’d expect the Roosters to target. However, most of the ball went left on Sunday afternoon. Manu managed only seven touches in the first half and needed to pop up on the left edge throughout the second half to get up to 20 touches by full time.
The expectation is still for both of these sides to click into gear at some stage. Latrell Mitchell’s return for South Sydney – whenever that might be – could be the difference. But for the Roosters, they need to find a better balance within their halves and perhaps use Luke Keary more as the dominant figure.
I think you can guess what will be on the Notepad for these two in Round 8.
A round to remember for…
It has to be the Wests Tigers again, doesn’t it?
Without overreacting and calling this the end of their time towards the bottom of the ladder, they have been excellent over the last two weeks. Unlike other winning runs we’ve seen throughout the year that have been based more on poor performances from the opposition than promising performances from the winning side (*cough* Warriors *cough*), the Tigers have played genuinely well to now be 2-5 and 13th on the NRL ladder.
Jackson Hastings somehow touched the ball more than the 90 times last week to register 102 touches in this one. Meanwhile, Luke Brooks got his hands on the ball 60 times and again looked good while doing so. Has Brooks really been unleashed? Leashed players don’t make this pass look so easy…
