Another tough night on the couch on Friday night with two interesting games on offer:
Bulldogs 9 defeated Roosters 8
Sonny Bill versus the Bulldogs Round 3, with Sonny Bill coming up trumps in the first two grudge matches last season
Another wet night in Sydney on a slippery surface, making it a tough defensive arm wrestle among the forwards where the Bulldogs probably had a slight edge and a deeper bench.
Bulldogs scored a well-constructed try in the corner to open the scoring after Jake Friend was denied when Sonny Bill was deemed to have interfered, and Minichello was lucky not to be penalised for using his knees.
The Roosters pegged the Dogs back and looked likely to go past them except for three major blunders:
– Daniel Tupou had a clear run to the line, and Reynolds coming across in cover. I think a more experienced winger would score that try nine times out of ten, by hitting the ground five metres out and sliding over. Tupou attempted to make the try line on his feet, allowing Reynolds enough of a target to push Tupou over the sideline and drop the ball.
– Receiving a penalty on the goal-line, the Roosters opted to look at each in confusion about what to do before taking a tap. On a night where points are at a premium, taking the two points would have been a wiser option, and indeed what the coach had ordered
If looks could kill, then Jake Friend would be suffering some severe bruising at least after ignoring the coaches instructions and opting to take the tap.
– At the end of that set, the Roosters attempted a field goal from in front of the sticks, which Pearce honked wide.
It was mentioned in the coverage that the Roosters haven’t scored on the last tackle this year, haven’t kicked a field goal since 2011 and have one of the worst rates of forcing opposition dropouts.
They are baffling statistics for the defending premiers and something that should be taken into account by Laurie come State of Origin selection time.
It was apparent that the Bulldogs were attacking Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, directing most of their kicks down into his corner. In doing so they flouted one of the guru’s lesser known golden rules “Outside boot makes the markers moot”.
This rule applies to kickers when they set up to get away their kicks on the last tackle – on numerous occasions, the Bulldogs kicker went down a short blind side on the left of the play the ball to then kick with their right foot; which in this situation is the inside foot, the one closer to the defenders trying to charge down the kick from marker.
Taking the ball down the left side of the field and kicking with the right foot means the ball has to be kicked to the left side of the field – it’s almost physically impossible to do anything else, especially with the defenders bearing down on the kicking leg.
If the kicker takes the ball on the right or open side of the field, he can kick it anywhere. He can still kick back across his body to the left, but it at least keeps the defence guessing, keeps the fullback from cheating to one side of the field and puts himself under far less pressure from the markers.
Tony Williams continues to play like the big kid in the U10s where the coach has told him not to run too hard in case he hurts someone.
Parramatta 25 defeated Brisbane 18
In the past two seasons, Parramatta have won 11 of 48 games. two of those wins came against the Broncos, so a 50 per cent record against the Broncos and a 20.5 per cent record against the rest of the NRL.
The last time the Eels won a game away from Parramatta Stadium was in Round 21 of 2012, also against the Broncos at Suncorp.
Try and tell me that the football gods don’t have a sense of humour or a sense of history, as that game saw Brad Arthur in his first stint as Parramatta coach.
The spooky similarities to the start of their 2013 season keep on keeping on:
– Win first game by a large margin over the Warriors
– Hammered by the Roosters who rack up 50 points
– Win their first two games at Parramatta Stadium
– Lose to the prior years grand final runner up by four points
– Beat the Broncos in their first meeting of the season
The trend they have managed to break is to win two games in a row for the first time since Rounds 19/20 back in 2010, which was four coaches ago!
They have also reached their third win of the season in record time, achieving it in Round 5 this season after taking until Round 9 and Round 16 to achieve their third victories in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
It was notable that Sam Perrett was extremely safe in terrible conditions at the back for the Bulldogs, while ex-Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba caught a dose of the yips and fumbled a kick into the in goal that lead to the try that put the Eels back on top.
Couldn’t Souths do with some of the steadying influence that Nathan Peats has had on the Eels? He’d have to be one of the buys of the year so far.
The icing of the cake was Sandow potting the field goal to seal the game. Many people have had fun at Sandow’s expense – including yours truly – but it was good to see him with a smile on his face again.
That’s how I saw it from the couch, let me now your thoughts in the comments below.
@Armchair_Guru
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