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Mitchell Pearce. Utter those two words and you send shivers down the body of every New South Welshmen and tears of joy start to stream down the faces of Queenslanders. To call him divisive would be a massive understatement.
There may not me be a more polarising figure in all of rugby league. His reinstatement in the State of Origin team has been met with fierce disapproval from those living within his home state.
The disapproval grew even more when a six-minute ‘highlights’ video of every error, poor kick and missed tackle he has made in the Blues jumper appeared online last week.
More 2015 State of Origin:
» State of Origin news
» State of Origin fixtures
» State of Origin teams
» Where State of Origin Game 1 will be won and lost
» State of Origin 2015: Game 1 preview
» PRICHARD: Maroons to win Origin 1
Pearce has been very lucky to be selected for some Origin matches, however he was clearly the best candidate, even if there were very few candidates. However, one of the things that annoys most Blues fans is that he keeps getting new chances, despite failing at almost every attempt he has received, while others have been shafted after just one or two matches.
Pearce’s Origin record makes for brutal reading, if this were Game of Thrones he’d have been killed off way back in 2008. Alas this is real life and Pearce has not yet had his head chopped off, popped like a pimple or been poisoned at a Blues team dinner. On top of this coach Laurie Daley has learnt from Pearce’s father’s mistakes and not planned any horse rides to replace the now extinct alcohol-filled bonding sessions.
Pearce has played in 12 Origins to date, winning just three of those matches. It may be a small sample size but Origin as a whole is a small sample, you only get three opportunities each year and have to take two of them if you want to lift the shield. Long-term club form means absolutely nothing if you can’t put it together on those three wintry Wednesdays. To date Pearce has failed to do so.
Thanks to YouTube I have been able to watch some, unfortunately not all, of Pearce’s past Origin matches to see how bad he’s really been (make sure you come back next week to see my thoughts on an NRL streaming service).
I wanted to go all the way back to his debut in 2008 but all I could find was a highlights package, in which a few things became instantly noticeable. Firstly, Fatty Vautin was an incredibly biased commentator, secondly bring back the biff and thirdly Pearce costs the Blues the victory.
It was a horrible Pearce defensive error that allowed Johnathan Thurston to slide through the Blues’ defensive line and put Billy Slater over. For those who can’t remember, or have successfully erased the memory from their mind, the Maroons had their ball 45 metres out from the Blues try line when Thurston took the ball down a short blindside and took on the line. He threw a dummy, Pearce fell for it hook, line and sinker and he slid straight through.
Admittedly the Blues did not shut the gate on the inside to ensure that Pearce’s error was not costly, but it was Pearce who made the initial mistake.
Watching Pearce play Origin makes for some painful viewing. Trust me, it was not fun. It is not hard to figure out where he has gone wrong in his Origin matches. The first major problem for Pearce is that he has failed to take control of his team and the match in general. There have been numerous attacking sets of six inside the opposition 20 in which he didn’t touch the ball once. These are the situations where he should be demanding the football.
On top of this Robbie Farah has repeatedly played over the top of him, kicking the football when Pearce should be the man kicking it or attempting to adopt a playmaker’s role when really it is not his place to do so. It is important to note that it is not just Pearce that Farah has overshadowed, he was clearly hindering Josh Reynolds and Trent Hodkinson’s leadership during last year’s series and he continually does so at Wests Tigers.
Things are a bit different for Pearce this time around though, he has been picked as five-eighth and Hodkinson is likely to dominate the playmaking responsibilities. That, however, leads us to our next point – when he did touch the ball during past Origins he was ineffective.
Pearce’s kicking game has been abhorrent at times during his Origin career. During the first half of Origin 2 in 2013 Pearce had just three kicks. Yes, you read that right, and all three were straight down the throat of a Queensland player. This is not good enough and was a primary reason why the Blues spent much of the opening 40 minutes in their own half.
When attacking with the ball in hand Pearce often tried to overplay his hand, attempted to force passes or did the complete opposite. He was simply a distributor. He was ineffective in both these situations because he did not challenge the defence. It is as simple as that, during his time in a Blues jumper he has failed to test the defence. We saw odd flashes in which he straightened and took on the line or dummied and went himself, but they were few and far between.
The Queensland halves are like The Fast and The Furious, every time they have the opportunity to, they test the defence. Every time Vin Diesel and co have the chance to race cars, they race cars. Pearce, however, is like an Indian fast bowling attack, rarely, if ever, testing the opposition’s defence.
Now is the time when all the Roosters fans pipe up and tell us how good Pearce is for his club and that if he can lead his side to a premiership, he can lead his state to a series victory. I’d like to counter the claim that he led his side to victory, I think Sonny Bill Williams led that 2013 Roosters team to the title, not Pearce.
Regardless of who led the team to victory there was one primary difference between the Roosters teams Pearce has played in and his Origin matches. When he plays for the Roosters he often plays behind a dominant forward pack. More often than not, his Blues forward packs have been totally dominated. It is far easier to play the position of halfback when your team is moving forward and the Queensland halves have regularly proven this. If the Blues forward pack is totally dominated on Wednesday night, Pearce will struggle.
Of course, the great halfbacks are able to control a match even when their forward pack is going backwards. That is what made Andrew Johns such a good player, his ability to control a match regardless of what was happening in the forwards battle. But Pearce is not a great player; he won’t be a great player until he can prove that he has this ability. And I’m not so sure that he will ever be able to do so.
During his previous 12 Origin games Mitchell Pearce has struggled to take control of the match and ensure that it is played on his terms. On Wednesday night he won’t be required to direct the side around the field, that role will fall to Trent Hodkinson. Hopefully this reduced responsibility will enable him to pick his spots and actually be effective when it is his time to contribute.
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