NRL Round 7 Review: The Moses Flow, Bulldogs Thoughts & Another Scurm Variation

Easter Weekend is one of the most underrated on the NRL calendar for me. Five consecutive days of footy is about as good as it gets. Two days is plenty to recharge for the next round.

The Dolphins put on a show to highlight Friday night before the Warriors and Broncos played out a thriller. It might not be the case for Eels and Tigers fans, but their Monday evening encounter will go down as my of my favourite games of the season.

As always, there is plenty to dig into with Round 8 only just around the corner.

What's to come this week...

• The Flow Moses Brings To Parramatta’s Attack

• Quick Play-the-Balls

  • “What are your thoughts on the dogs so far this ye …

  • Katoa’s Pass

  • A Quick Highlight

• Setting Up For A Shot: Was this on purpose?

• Try Time: Another Scrum Variation

Big Takeaway From the Week: The Flow Moses Brings To Parramatta’s Attack

Tackle one can make or break a set of six. First up here, we’re breaking down what makes for the biggest talking point of the week.

The benching of a young half at the Wests Tigers dominated the news cycle last week. That allowed Mitchell Moses’ return from injury to fly relatively low under the radar.

In the end, a top-three halfback and one of the most influential players in the NRL can make a big difference…

If we go back to Round 4, we took a Jason Ryles quote and considered what the Eels are meant to look like at their best:

“For the last five minutes, I actually asked the boys why we attacked like that because that’s what we look like when we train.”

To sum it up in my own words:

“They’ve put some work into the Sea Eagles’ middle defence before shifting the ball…test the edge without forgetting the work through the middle. More support and activity around the ball generated quicker play-the-balls. With them, Parramatta found more success down the edges.”

Add Moses to the mix, and it all looks a lot more fluid. Ryles mentioned in his press conference² following the 38-22 win over the Wests Tigers, that “when he plays, we’re a little bit more organised for longer.”

There is a flow to the attack with Moses out there, and the first try, following his 40/20, paints the picture well.

It comes from a tap start where the Eels lay Junior Paulo to the post in preparation for a shift.

Quickly back to Round 6 for a moment where the Brisbane Broncos exploited a trend between the three and four-man of the Tigers’ left edge defence:

“Luai has brought his fast and high approach to the edges from Penrith. He shoots out of the line, looking to spoil a shift. Depending on what happens inside him, he will jam out onto the ball player or sit on his heels and wait for the backrower to release from the lead.”

It looked as though the Eels targeted that space early, but Luai’s high line did the job on this occasion.

Unfazed, the Eels are straight back to their points. J’maine Hopgood manages to generate some second phase. Few teams are better at firing the ball wide after an offload than the Eels, and they ask another good question down their left edge this time.

With the Tigers defence scrambling, it’s back to Paulo at the same spot the played the ball previously.

Moses and the Eels change it up a little bit this time. Rather than digging deep into the line as Dylan Brown had done previously, Moses plays earlier. It gives the edge time to bring the defence out and only an excellent covering effort from Jarome Luai stops them from scoring.

After Will Penisini wasted one trying to burrow over from dummy half, the Eels are ready to go again.

The Tigers middle doesn’t do enough to stop Riley Smith from making his way across the field, allowing Brown to fire a quick pass to Moses with the three-man in his sights. It’s exactly where the Eels wanted to be on this play.

Again, the Tigers scrambled well, but they don’t have the answer for a fourth question asked in quick succession.

Call it structure, flow, or whatever you like. Everybody watching could see and feel how much better Parramatta looked with Moses out there.

Later, they exploited that space down the right edge for points, with Moses organising the set—again from a tap start—before throwing the finals pass.

It’s a shame the Eels have a bye this week. They’re finally starting to assemble the pieces and will have their momentum halted by the break. Banking wins before Moses is taken away for State of Origin duty feels important, too.

We will see how they perform when returning from the bye to face the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at Magic Round, but Moses is enough on his own to force a rethink of Parramatta’s expectations for 2025.

Quick Play-the-Balls

We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.

“What are your thoughts on the dogs so far this year?”

Andrew got in touch via Instagram but I thought I’d respond properly here.

Honestly, I’m surprised.

Not surprised that Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are good or better than last year, but absolutely surprised that they’re 6-0 after Round 7 and 32-0 over the South Sydney Rabbitohs levels of good.

We’ve seen teams play out promising periods before quickly regressing in the past. The Bulldogs will return to the pack in some capacity sooner or later. But the fun part is trying to determine how real all of this is right now.

They’re doing it with their defence. Conceding only 9.6 points per game puts them among the best teams in NRL history at the moment. While that number seems unsustainable, we can confidently tip the Bulldogs to finish the season inside the Top 3 in defence. Historically, that’s the first box you must tick to be a premiership contender.

That elite defence has given them the time to iron out the kinks with the ball. While they’ve landed on Toby Sexton as the halfback alongside Matt Burton, the attack has been a work in progress over the last 12 months.

There is a clear Penrith Panthers element to how they attacked the Rabbitohs on Good Friday. Like Penrith, the Bulldogs dropped players back under and looked to take juice out of the Rabbitohs middle.

When they’re ready to fire their shot, there is shape wide on both sides of the ruck. That stack of Bulldogs players outside Josh Curran adds some urgency for Jai Arrow to get off the lead, but he’s one step too early and is beaten by the step back inside.

So, what are my thoughts now?

They’re not about to go through the NRL season unbeaten, and their defensive numbers will rise at least a little bit. But this Bulldogs team and their start to the year are real, and they will be among the contenders after Round 27.

Katoa’s Pass

In the interests of it being a sick try that the Dolphins appear to have drawn up in response to how the Melbourne Storm defends, I’m calling the final pass flat¹ .

First, a glimpse into what the Dolphins saw earlier.

As Isaiya Katoa drops Connelly Lemuelu off back under, you can see how high the Storm edge gets. They’re in front of Eli Katoa at four-man, and it’s up to him to close the space. He’s one of the best in the business in defence, but it’s an approach that can leave the edge exposed.

When Isaiya Katoa takes the ball behind a lead inside Eli Katoa, Jahrome Hughes is on an island. Isaiya knows the pressure is coming from the inside, but if he can burn to Hughes with Lemuelu first shaping to run at the inside shoulder, he can trust Grant Anderson will jam from centre - it’s fairly typical of the Storm defensive system.

The pass is a peach, slightly forward or not. The line is perfect. That’s a late fade any hole-runner in the NRL would be proud of pulling off.

Any jamming defence the Dolphins face in the future will need to keep this in mind.

A Quick Highlight

Setting Up For A Shot: Was this on purpose?

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.

The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks did their work early to build a formidable lead in Round 7. It’s the time teams can try something they’ve been working on and review it before really needing to pull it off in a big game later in the season.

Is Teig Wilton’s little hesitation in the lead-up to Mawene Hiroti’s try something, or just a fluffed line?

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.