There is a lot to cover after every round in the NRL. Throughout the 2024 season, this is a place where I’ll cover what is most important, a few little things I liked from the round, something to keep an eye on in the next one, and a try I particularly enjoyed.
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What you’ll get in this NRL Round 5 Review:
- Raiders set starts & eyes up footy
- A try on NRL debut
- Kikau coming up big
- Papenhuyzen hovering
- Katoa slipping through
The Tough Carry: Raiders set starts & eyes up footy
Tackle 1 is often the toughest carry of the set. It can make or break it. Here, it’s my biggest talking point from the round that was.
The idea of “eyes up footy” has taken on a life of its own in recent years.
It means different things to different people but all good teams play with it in one way or another.
For the Penrith Panthers, it’s calculated and methodical. Nathan Cleary isn’t what most people would call an eyes up player, but he is one. He’s constantly surveying the defensive line, looking one or two plays ahead. The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks live and die by playing eyes up and spotting cues in the line.
Few would have used the term when descibing the Canberra Raiders attack in 2023. “Crash and bash” felt more appropriate for much of the year. Per Stats Insider, they scored 30% of their tries through the middle of the field, bashing the door until it opened up. This year, however, the Raiders look a lot different.
Ricky Stuart has adjusted and is looking to use the players at his disposal. Primarily, the speed and power on the edges.
Canberra scored a few long-range tries against the Parramatta Eels in Round 5. They look opportunistic, but as we will see, the tries didn’t come by accident. They profiled Parramatta’s compact yardage defence and constructed actions to expose it.
Their first is a classic and a great example of a scripted set playing out to perfection.
It starts with a fairly inoccuous Matt Timoko carry down the right edge.
But as the Raiders work back the other way, Danny Levi gives Morgan Smithies a look from dummy half. An eyebrow raise to say, “get to him”.
“Him” being Blaize Talagi, and Smithies knows it.
The Englishman skips past the middle defender and brings Talagi into the tackle. Importantly, he wins a quick play-the-ball and Talagi is slow back into the line as a result.
By bringing Talagi into the tackles around mid-field, an Eels middle is forced to flip. Joey Lussick gets there and is the ideal middle for Parramatta to have there if they need one, but he doesn’t get off his line square and with Matterson slow from marker, Ethan Strange is able to pounce.
Had it been Reagan Campbell-Gillard or Wiremu Greig filling in where Lussick ends up, we’d likely see Strange skip to the outside.
There was still no skip required in Canberra’s second long-range try. Again, it’s one they’d planned for earlier. This is Sean Russell pointing out Xavier Savage standing wide in yardage – not a common position for a winger at this point of a set.
While Russell may have spotted it, James Schiller does well enough, under the guise of a regulation one-out carry on 2nd tackle out of yardage, fires a pass to Strange who shovels the ball wide. Russell knows he needs to close down the space, but in doing so, is caught wrong-footed when Savage steps inside and the Raiders winger puts on the afterburners to score.
The last example, and from another set start, is my favourite.
While the key action is tigher to the middle, it’s done to create space out wide.
Canberra take two carries to the far post from a tap start.
Coming back the other way, they once again land in the middle of the field as they did so earlier.
You can’t see it in the closer vision, but as Joe Ofahengaue peels out of the tackle, Clint Gutherson directs him to the Parramatta right edge. Ofahengaue doesn’t see his fullback, leaving Gutherson to flip. In doing so, the Eels are left a number short down their left edge and the Raiders snap into action.
With a lead inside the three-man as Jordan Rapana sweeps, the Raiders create a three-on-two out wide for Schiller to fly down the sideline to score.
It’s another planned set for the Raiders. Still, it’s in the finest details that it becomes a succesfull action. It could have looked a lot different had Ofahengaue looked at his fullback a second sooner.
Canberra have gotten by with toughness and unrelenting fight regardless of the opposition in recent years. It has often been enough to make up for what hasn’t always been the most dynamic attack. Things look different in 2024, though.
They’ve kept their steel and power through the middle, but are finding more success down the edges this season. Some had this group in the wooden spoon conversation. Once again, they look set to exceed expectations and be in the hunt for finals football by the end of the NRL season.
Quick play-the-ball: Another try on debut and Kikau killing it
We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.
Ben Te Kura try on debut
You won’t find many tries on NRL debut that don’t get me going.
A mountain of a man, Ben Te Kura saw a dimunite fullback and utility defending either side of the ruck on the goal line and wound up. They were no chance of stopping the big unit from here.
Like many players his size, it’s going to be interesting to see how Te Kura develops. It’s not easy moving all of that up and down off the ground and back and forward 10 metres. I would imagine he will need to learn how to get around the field and best use his energy more than most players.
With 115 running metres through 12 carries in 24 minutes, he’s off to a promising start.
Kikau coming up big
I looked into how the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are building their attack last week, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I don’t need to, really.
The numbers do the talking:
- 7 Runs
- 167 Running metres
- 2 Linebreaks
- 1 Try assist
- 6 Tackle breaks
There is a lot to digest with the Bulldogs attack after Round 5. They looked pretty good for periods with Matt Burton in the centres and Toby Sexton in the halves…
Whatever the construction of the 17, though, Kikau will be the centre of the attack for a while yet.
Setting up for a shot: Papenhuyzen hovering
Teams play to points with the following tackle in mind. Here, I’m touching on something to watch next week as we try to keep ahead of things happening on the field.
Ryan Papenhuyzen pushing up and around the ball is nothing new. He’s back to looking fit and active, moving across the field and sweeping to the longside from beind the ruck.
His presense around the ball can work wonders, as it did here:
A late-sweeping player would typically swing behind Shawn Blore here but Papenhuyzen holds up on Cameron Munster’s inside.
Given it’s big Ben Te Kura filling in at the shortside A spot, Patrick Carrigan wants to work hard from marker but he can’t with Papenhuyzen hovering. With Munster able to skip past the big fella and engage Adam Reynolds, Blore flies through the hole and into the backfield.
With the Storm getting back to full strength and already looking like one of the best teams in the NRL, I’ll be keeping an eye on Papenhuyzen, in particular, in the coming weeks.
Try Time: Katoa slipping through
Sometimes, it will be a piece of magic. Others, it’s a basic move made to look easy. Whatever it is, all great sets end in points, so we’re doing the same here.
More on the Storm: This try is a beauty.
We’ve seen this double lead line either side of a single defender popping up more and more around the NRL. We don’t see it run through the middle of the field with a jockey out the back all that often, though.
The Storm shaped up to run it a few times all the way up the field and used it for Eli Katoa to score his second on Thursday night.
The Broncos edge getting up high off the line is a picture the Storm had seen earlier. Jahrome Hughes knew what was coming, and Katoa runs the slip line to score.
Teams are learning off each other and adding their own variations along the way. As usual, the Storm are at the forefront. It won’t be a surprise to see more teams running flatter shapes across the field in the coming weeks.