Can someone tell me why Laurie Daley and Bob Fulton picked Daniel Tupou?
Watching my state’s footballing cream try to bring home the bacon for the first time in eight series reminded me of the times I used to watch Pat Rafter post-US Open or Adam Scott pre-Masters victory.
They made the seemly difficult yet attainable look bloody impossible.
I am sure I wasn’t the only armchair punter screaming “kick it to Tupou”, but his on-field thumbing was so clear I started to believe that Loz had his nickels on every other player to score a try.
The blinkers approach from NSW towards Tupou and Michael Jennings had me scratching my head regarding the winger’s selection and it’d be fair to say Queensland and even Toups himself would have been wondering what he’d done to deserve such an on-field snubbing.
I can excuse his lack of involvement in Game 1 – Hayne and the Morris boys were creating havoc for Queensland’s left-edge defence, and it showed there was some clear planning from the NSW brains trust to use that side as a go-to when on a Queensland raid.
But with both Morris lads nursing themselves from at the very least the second half onwards, Tupou and Jennings were left catching the sniffles on their side of the paddock, and should have been used more effectively and more often.
The lefts side’s omission from NSW’s attempted attacks on Queensland line, particularly in Game 2, has left me speculating if the boys’ names were left completely off the NSW offensive schematics by Loz and co.
You’d have thought that the green pairing of Josh Dugan and Will Hopoate might have become the spectators this time around, as the NSW left would become the go-to weapon of choice. Not so. For the most part of Game 2 NSW looked lost in trying to execute any sort of backline movements on either side of the park, and in an inexplicable and poor move, failed to try and offer a kick for Tupou to challenge when close to the Queensland line bar one occasion.
That’s right, once.
One kick for the man many a NSW fan would regard to be their version of Israel Folau – referring of course to their likened ability to secure the rights under the high pill. The clearly clunky and often lost NSW attack didn’t even look like considering their leaping winger as a try-scoring option, despite having many opportunities in the Queensland 20.
That NSW would not consider such a potent attacking ploy is bordering on the ridiculous, but to have the airborne acrobatics from the likes of Tupou left to gather moss on the NSW left edge, is just that – ridiculous.
It gets worse though. And this is where this moves from the ridiculous to the truly absurd. While NSW were searching for points, Queensland had a makeshift winger in Chris McQueen filling the void of an injured Brent Tate from the 55th minute onwards. A makeshift winger up against a giant leaper was left untested by the NSW’s playmakers, who needed points.
It should have been curtains for Mal’s boys long before the 70th minute.
Could you imagine Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston seeing such a glaring weakness and not taking advantage of a far superior high-flyer in their team? Doubt it.
Consider for a moment the way Queensland set themselves when in the Blues’ opposition 20. Every Blue-hearted nut from Eden to the Tweed knows that at some point during the set, a backline sweep involving Thurston, Greg Inglis and Darius Boyd is on its way. Why? Because they understand that the size and skill of Inglis is far greater than those opposite him, he either draws defenders to set up his winger or scores himself. It’s Queensland footy 101.
If Tupou was playing for Queensland, he would have had two or three tries already this series.
Judging by the gameplan NSW have had, they may as well have picked Pat Richards, or any other winger with a treadmill underneath them, as it wouldn’t have mattered. But at least Patty would have given the NSW team an added kicking option, even if those options were only spiralling kick offs and 50m penalty attempts.
Given the way NSW have used Tupou so far this series, Richards was actually a better option – at least there would have had a point to him being in the side.
Mr Brown
Roar Pro
Lol!
Mitchoh
Guest
You obviously don't understand SOO Rugby league Sambo.
Luke M
Guest
It's simple, Paul Gallen can't kick. And since he was playing halfback, Tupou didn't stand a chance.
Mitchoh
Guest
I'm sick of this "boring spectacle" and "no football being played" and "has the difference between the ruling of NRL and SOO gone too far" rubbish talk. This game was the biggest in history for NSW. The chance to end the nightmare of interstate embarrassment. They needed to WIN. Any way they could. They played accordingly. A no mistake brand of rugby league. Guess what happens when you put the ball through more sets of hands? You increase the chances of mistakes. It wasn't pretty but I doubt NSW are too worried about that. Let's get to QLD. As a NSW supporter living in QLD I can tell you first hand that they would be more than happy if they kept winning forever. They love winning and they hate NSW. They played with the tactics they thought would win them the the game and with it the series given that they are hosting the third match. They have some of the most potent attacking players in history but it was the type of situation where no one was going to run 50m or even 20m and score a try. IMO it was a great spectacle. Desperate stuff. Who would break first? Who would punch first? Who would make the mistake that made the difference? Real rugby league fans can appreciate these things. At the end of the day SOO is about WINNING. Up the blues!
sambo
Guest
The most boring game of league i have watched.I turned off after 30 minutes and watched a movie.
Why Not
Guest
4th last paragraph that is
Why Not
Guest
correction - left edge with hodgkinson for third last paragraph
Why Not
Guest
The left edge did appear to be more fruitful throughout the game with hoffman making good yardage and hodkinson getting qld to count heads in defence keeping them just the slightest of smidgens on the backfoot in a game so tight. Eventually it did yield benefits with a try but the gameplan was to do the same as game 1 with hayne coming down the right. Qld prepared for this and thurston with a personal commitment to tackle Hayne. This is probably why the ball eventually stayed away from the backs because the plays were no longer working, with the forwards (gallen farrah bird) feeling like the game had to be in their hands because of the pressure put on the team from either losing a psychological battle from the plays being ineffective or just turning over the ball. cold from a breakdown in the play. Thats the thing about gameplans you need to be a step ahead of how the opposition is going to react and come up with a new method that they haven't thought of. NSW probably should have been smart enough to realise that QLD would have come up with a method to snuff out that right edge. Reynold probably needed to adapt slightly from putting the ball out the back to hayne and create some new short options to keep QLD committed to his runners before pulling the trigger on the hayne option when the numbers and space was there to do so.(I think even hayne said this in his post match interview as well that an option away from him may have been better ) It also seemed a lot of the time they ran out of room with QLD sliding well which suggests the work in the middle wasn't effective enough to draw outside defenders further in before running this play I assume this was because of the slow play the ball. But really QLD had it covered all night. And the right edge looked slightly better in attack I believe when hodkinson was running the a ball (the composed play on the last where he ran and grubbered to tupuo who booted it downfield - high risk but a good read nonetheless and the composure was there to look at running it on the last. This play showed that QLD had a potential vulnerability here and might have needed to be explored more - but as i said in the previous paragraph im sure QLD may rectify this for game III and I would love to see NSW with nothing to lose come up with a totally new approach to game III and blast them off the park. Just quickly despite Inglis looking damaging and explosive - it wasn't to be and dugan scott and reynolds should take some credit for this. For game III I hope NSW go into it like they haven't really won it (as a previous comment said it was slightly dissatisfying winning the game in this fashion)and really test themselves again against a QLD team playing for their pride and sense of self. If this happens then Game III could be an absolute cracker - and NSW can claim series kings undisputedly - if QLD win it leaves some doubts for the following year that maybe QLD were just a bit off this year and NSW were lucky to take advantage of it. So game on
Knightblues
Guest
We did kick for Tupou, what game were you watching? I counted 3 kicks for him, only 1 he caught, the other one he fumbled, and one he didn't even leap for. I think he was too over awed by the occasion tbh, he did make a few damaging runs, and Im sure he will improve for game 3, and next year he will go much better. The man is a human horse, all he needs is more confidence and belief in himself at this level and people wont even be talking about Folau.
Mr Brown
Roar Pro
There was plenty of time spent in the QLD 20. The backs didn't need to see the ball with great back line sweeps, but NSW just had to position themselves on the 3rd or 4th tackles on the right of the park and bomb away to left corner. But only once did they try to do this. I blame Farah for not directing play towards the right side, I blame the halves for not calling or seeing it as well, and I blame Loz for not sending the message via the trainers to exploit QLD's glaring weakness. It was summed up why we've lost 8 series.
Paulipaul
Guest
How could tupou touch the ball with gallen living his five eighth fantasy for all the world to see. Never have I seen a forward get the ball so much. Horrible!!! We won because cherry evans fell for a dummy and because jarryd hayne saved a try, everything else cancelled each other out, both forwards bashed each other with no team able to claim a win in the forwards.
Parrafan
Guest
Good point Christian. I can't help but think if Cronk was playing they really would have exploited that match up (dugan v Gi, injured Hoppa v Boyd).
Mike
Guest
Aside from Farah (who was outstanding), NSW's kicking game was very very poor.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Neither side was able to get the ball out wide. The defensive lines for both teams were well inside the 10 all night and no penalties were blown. It was difficult for either team to get the ball further than one or two passes wide. Unfortunately that seems to be getting more common in Origin.
Chop
Roar Guru
I think Hayne/Hoppa/Dugan/Jennings and Tupou were all under used because the ball didn't get past Gallen and Bird. I don't know if it was by design but Hodgkinson and Reynolds didn't see anywhere near enough ball which meant the backs didn't get anywhere near enough ball.
Christian D'Aloia
Roar Guru
NSW had WIll Hopoate playing with one arm for just about the entire game, and not once did Queensland exploit this. So you can blame both sides' halves for not exploiting the opposition's weakness on the wing.
Fishfinger
Guest
It's because the halves were rubbish. They couldn't get the ball out the backline to Jennings and Tupou and couldn't put up a bomb to his wing that was worth anything. Lucky Hodgkinson scored a try against a tired QLD defence or they would be calling for two new halves for game 3
Carlos
Guest
Agree though I thought it utterly bizarre that the blues didn't deploy the kick to Topou a dozen times, particularly after Tate left the field. Though in balance neither teams halves should be happy about their performance. QLD had this game it was theirs to win and they blew it allowing themselves to get more interested in out niggling NSW. Hopa couldn't lift his arm for most of the second half and Inglis was all over Dugan. If QLD had directed all their efforts down that side of the field they would have won by 20. DCE and Thurston really failed to take advantage of the situation. Reynolds is certainly a character but I think NSW need to get some more smarts into the team, I hope Loz gives Maloney a call up for game 3.
Parrafan
Guest
I can understand that it was a battle up the middle but as the author states McQueen on the wing and Tupou his opposite. For me that reeks of opportunity considering many an NRL winger has trouble defending against tupou. I hope he is better utilized in games to come and Hodkinson can actually put a bomb up that doesn't land 15m out from the try line..
Ken
Guest
I think you've narrowed too far. There simply weren't that many attacking opportunities, especially in the second game - the story of not much opportunity could be applied to almost all of the outside backs on both teams (especially the wingers). Remember though that the Blues did kick for Tupou on one of their first attacking sets, and he completely mis-read the play and wasn't in the vicinity - with only a handful of other chances in the game it's not really that hard to believe they didn't get around to trying it again.