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Cronulla’s attack has never been in doubt. The St George Illawarra’s defence has. That was evident before the game and is even more so now after a 52-16 thrashing in which Nicho Hynes underlined his case for a crack in the halves for NSW.
The 52 conceded tonight was enough to raise the hundred conceded in just a week for the Dragons, who shipped 48 to the Warriors last week. That, combined with the decision by captain Ben Hunt to ask for a release from his contract, will see this go down as one of the worst weeks in the history of the Red V.
In many ways, it was a carbon copy of their meeting in Round 4: that night, it took a while for Craig Fitzgibbon’s men to get going, but once they did, they never looked back and cantered home in the end.
Tonight, they went behind twice in the opening stages again, but ended up dishing out an almighty beating.
On both occasions, Nicho Hynes was the undoubted star. This time around he scored and got three try assists, with halves partner Matt Moylan going one better with four.
Both Ronaldo Mulitalo and Briton Nikora got try doubles as the Sharks racked up their highest ever score against their local rivals, with the only black spot a rib injury to Braden Hamlin-Uele.
“The scoreboard flattered us, they were stronger than that,” said Fitzgibbon.
“They really took it to us early, so the most pleasing thing was that we stuck at it and were quite patient in the way that we played.
“We earned the right to play footy late but we weren’t searching for it too early, we knuckled down, traded sets, kept asking questions. Simple stuff. I’m more pleased about earning the right than what the scoreboard said.”
St George Illawarra never gave themselves much of a chance. Having been pumped by the Warriors at home, they did start with some fire and crossed early through Mikaele Ravalawa and Tautau Moga, but wilted at the first sign of pressure.
Hunt was largely ineffectual and, by the end, something of a figure of fun as he contorted himself in an attempt to stop a move, only to be easily side-stepped en route to another try. It was that kind of night for everyone in the Red V.
The captain had missed training on Monday amid the contract drama, but said his situation hadn’t affected the showing.
“I was a bit crook at the start of the week, so I only had captain’s run, but that was good and we’ve had good meetings,” he said.
“We’d prepared well and I was feeling quite confident coming into tonight.
“We need to come together as a group and fight harder than we have in the last two weeks to try and get some wins.
“We can’t shy away from it, we have to keep turning up and trying to be better, to look after each other and try to play as a team.
“I felt like we competed a lot harder tonight than we did last week, but the scoreboard doesn’t reflect that.
“We tried in a lot of areas but had a few things go against us and they had a lot of possession. They had 60 play the balls in our 20, which is going to result in a lot of tries.”
The first half was a tale of the Dragons’ goalline defence. Cronulla will generally throw a lot in attack, especially with off-the-ball movement, but the inability of St George Illawarra to stand up the slightest of tests was staggering to see at this level.
Hynes waltzed in early, then found Briton Nikora for a second, and Jesse Ramien got a third from a high kick. Amazingly, there had been only seven tackles inside 20m for three tries.
All three came down the channel that Mat Feagai was defending, with the centre – usually a winger – clearly unsure of when to come and when to go. Inevitably, he found himself stuck in no man’s land more often than not.
The first try was a great example. Jayden Sullivan stopped in the line and made a poor defensive decision, which opened the gap on his outside, but Feagai did nothing to shuffle over into the space that he had vacated, leaving it wide open.
If the attack are going to score, make them at least score in the corner by keeping inside shoulders the whole way. Feagai looked where the ball was supposed to go, not where it actually was.
Then, with three minutes to the break, there was an outbreak of backbone. The Sharks managed four consecutive sets on the Dragons’ line, but were repelled every time.
Some of that was helped by St George Illawarra learning to lie on in the tackle, with two set restarts and an offside penalty, but still: by their low standards, it was excellent stuff.
Of course, the Sharks did get over before the break with Hynes tempting Blake Lawrie into putting the shot on, before dropping Tom Hazleton over the top of Tyrell Sloan. There’s mismatches, and then there’s that.
After the break, the weight of possession and lack of enthusiasm told. Zac Lomax’s effort to stop Siosifa Talakai late in the half was shameful for a first grader, but by then, it didn’t matter anyway.
Of all the teams in the NRL, these are perhaps the two that are most halfback dominant. The Dragons for sure, as they throw almost all their attack through Hunt, but also the Sharks, for whom Hynes is always the heart of their best work.
It’s why they were two of the top three in last year’s Dally M voting: if their team win, it’s almost always the result of the bloke in the seven jumper.
Both had been under serious pressure coming in. Hunt because of the contract farrago, Hynes due to his treatment in the Origin arena, with a new Blues team set to be picked after this weekend.
For Hunt, this wasn’t exactly the perfect match in which to shine given the poor possession split, but also one in which he failed to make the right sort of impact.
Bar one outstanding pass that created a try for Moga, Hunt was battling against a black, white and blue tide that gave him little to work with offensively.
Even so, Cronulla knew that he was the major creator and did everything to shut him down. In that situation, Hunt should have done more to get Sloan involved out of the back, using the target on his back to make space for someone else.
Hynes was an expert at that. He not only used himself as a dummy to get Hazelton over, but also created deception through teammates. He used Nikora for his own try, threatening to find his backrower before going himself, then reversing that trick to send his man over with a pass.
It shouldn’t need repeating, but Hynes is perfect for Origin and will never be in better form. Still, that’s not helped him before.