- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Two rounds in and it’s been great. You’ve had your close games and your not-so-close games, your heart-warming underdog stories and your redemption arcs.
I might be biased, being a noted lover of international footy, but that’s what you want. Sure, I’d like every game to be a one-point thriller, but in the real world, there’s huge chasms that need to be overcome and that’s fine.
The thrill of part-timers from Wales putting the willies up Tonga, or Greece grabbing their obligatory miracle tries, or Jamaica fluking their first at this level, is what I’m here for.
With a decent sample size in the bank, we can start to judge who has done well and otherwise. Here’s the first dig at a Team of the Tournament.
It’s difficult to look past Joey Manu across two games’ worth of action. The caveat might be that he played 6 in the second game due to an injury to Dylan Brown, but honestly, who cares?
Manu is the Kiwis best by a mile, he has to be in the best 17 and he played one game at fullback, so he gets the jersey. New Zealand need their halves pairing back and firing, partly because theirs is one of the great spines but partly because it frees Manu up to play at the back.
This is as cut and dried as it gets. Addo-Carr has scored a hatful, and several of them truly spectacular efforts. His first in Leeds was classic Foxx, swerving through tacklers to go the length of the field, while the try that sealed the deal against Scotland in Coventry was one of the all-time great Kangaroos tries.
Young has been more like the modern winger, with plenty of hard yardage carries and a few decent tries to boot – probably because, in Samoa and France, England have faced tougher opposition.
The first 20 minutes against the Samoans, Young battered in time and again, before breaking the game open with a superb run that left Joseph Suaalii in the dust. Against France, it was more sensible stuff followed by a late cashing-in of points. The 90m interception try produced a noise from the home crowd quite unlike any other heard in this tournament.
The centre category was the hardest to pick: there have been plenty of excellent wingers, a surfeit of superb backrowers and more than a couple of halves, but centres have taken a bit of a backseat, not to mention several rotations across the bigger sides.
Kallum Watkins has to be in there. I played against Kal as a 12-year-old – he was so good he played a few years up – and followed his career intently as he rose from Folly Lane juniors to Leeds Rhinos and England over to the Titans and now back home to Salford. He’s never looked this good.
Reinvented as a backrower in Super League, he has returned to the centres for England in a much bigger body and with far harder carries. His combination with Young is in its infancy, but has already yielded several tries, but it’s the grunt work out of yardage that gets him his nod. Samoa had no answer. Neither did France. The only lowlight is a bad head clash late in the France game that will see him sit out an 11-day waiting period.
Peta Hiku is similarly reborn. Like Watkins, Hiku did a wilderness period on the other side of the world before critically reassessing his own career. This World Cup comes at the perfect time for Hiku: off the back of a renaissance with the Cowboys, he now goes into a stacked Kiwis team.
We’ve seen plenty of good stuff on the front foot in the first two games, and we can expect his ever-excellent defensive work to kick in as the challenges ramp up.
(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for RLWC)
This has been a banner tournament for halves. Nathan Cleary made a near-record-breaking Kangaroos debut but doesn’t get a jersey here, Luke Keary produced a virtuoso performance for Ireland but misses the cut, too. Pity Cam Munster, superb in two games, but not in this selection, and Kyle Laybutt, excellent for PNG.
That’s because we have to pick Mitchell Moses at 7 and, with the intent of getting him in, George Williams at 6.
Williams has been close to man of the match in both England games, one at scrum half and the other at stand-off, so we can qualify him as a 6 because he did play there against France. His England place was in severe doubt after a poor season at Warrington, and had Johnny Lomax not gone down injured, it’s possible he wouldn’t have played at all. Instead, he’s close to the best player in the World Cup so far.
Moses, on the back of a stellar year at Parramatta, seems to have elevated in a Lebanese jersey. His performance in their win over Ireland was up there with any seen at this World Cup so far and, even in defeat, he was at the heart of all their best work against the Kiwis. Lebanon are the most tactically interesting team at the World Cup and all the tactics run through the halfback. He’s got to be in.
Tonga have underwhelmed in their two games – though full credit to PNG and Wales – but it has been as much a result of backline inefficiencies as anything else. You certainly couldn’t fault their go-forward: Addin Fonua-Blake is the top ranking forward for metres made and Sio Siua Taukeiaho has been superb.
SST beats out his compatriot for a few reasons. His core skills as a front-rower have been exceptional, and we shouldn’t overlook that, but let’s get onto the good stuff.
Firstly, his ability to act as a playmaker in the middle, especially in the absence of Jason Taumalolo, has been excellent, and secondly, his role in winning a crucial game for his team with a late clutch play against the Kumuls was instrumental in averting one of the big upsets of this World Cup. Oh, and how good is it to see a goalkicking prop again?
Alongside Taukeiaho comes Australia’s Pat Carrigan. More usually a lock at club level, Carrigan has overcome personal tragedy – the death of his mate, Liam Hampson – to be one of the Kangaroos’ most consistent performers. He’s the guy you want beside you on the park, who does a bit of everything and lets the other blokes shine.
Harry Grant has been superb at the tournament so far, but no true rugby league romantic can look beyond PNG hooker Edwin Ipape. If you read these pages closely, you’ll be aware that he was singled out as one of the players to watch, a call that was vindicated with a man of the match performance in the Kumuls last gasp defeat to Tonga.
He backed it up with a strong showing against the Cook Islands and looks set to cement himself as one of the hottest properties outside of the NRL and Super League.
In fairness, Ipape’s talent has never been in doubt. The issues that led to him departing the Hunters were off-field, and once he got back onto the field with Leigh, he has been a revalation. Next year he’ll be part of their Super League side and, undoubtedly, bigger fish will be watching.
There have been a number of exceptional backrowers at this World Cup: Elie El-Zakhem of Lebanon, Viliame Kikau of Fiji and Angus Crichton of Australia have all played both games and impressed, but the two who make our 17 are Rhyse Martin and Keaon Koloamatangi.
Martin has been excellent for a long time in the Super League and featured for Leeds in their recent Grand Final appearance, but has grown another leg for the Kumuls with two tries, a heap of goals and plenty of hard carries. He’s an underrated strike runner out wide and provides vital leadership.
Koloamatangi might be close to player of the tournament. He actually began against the Kumuls as a hooker, but drifted into his regular position in the back row when Soni Luke came on without ever letting up in his influence.
The Souths man might be the best hole runner in the world at the moment, as evidenced by his try against Wales, and exerted much needed calm when Tonga were on the rack late on against PNG. It was no surprise at all to see him flop on the ball and win his side the game.
You can debate the Englishness or otherwise of Victor Radley – his father is from Sheffield, so I’ll take him – but you can’t debate his impact. The Roosters lock was perhaps fortunate to get the official man of the match award in England’s win over Samoa given the other performances that day, but he was certainly among the best on ground.
In the second game, he provided a spectacular moment to put Luke Thompson over for a try and was on the spot to get his first in England colours late on, all the while showing the solid defence and, for want of a better phrase, annoyingness. Shaun Wane loves a wind-up merchant and a pack that include John Bateman, Micky McIlorum, Radey and Thompson will not lack in that regard.