My analysis:
1
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck - great under the high ball. He exuded leadership. If that was an ordinary game from him then what a great player he is. One knock is that he was probably too revealing in his pre-game interview. He answered with the naked truth of how we planned to stop JT. ie to rush him and make tackling contact with him while he was in his initial strides. Great tactic but very few experienced captains spill the beans. Look for
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to be asked more questions in coming weeks by hopeful reporters.
2
Herbert. From the doghouse to the penthouse. What an opening try. Very few people would have scored that. Defence is poor on the wing and he and
Pompey kept leaving their winger by drifting in to the centre and left an unmarked opposition winger to cross the chalk. Experienced wingers stick to their assignment. The try we let in from the scrum with their winger scoring from a set play was very annoying. Hopefully if Ken and
Fusitua return to the wing they can help us with our wide edge defence. The score line flattered them and had their goal kicker made their final conversion then things could have been tighter at the end.
3. Gerard
Beale - he is doing ok. And contributing to the team. I say he stays in the centres with
Hiku and
Fusitua goes back to the wing.
4
Hiku. 3 tries. Someone made post last week that listed him ranked around 20th for centres in the league. He is quite decent and reckon a number of teams would take him as their centre. If he didn't play this week then we would have lost last night. He was a "big in" for the line up. His one on one stepping on Masters for the try was top drawer. We won't discuss his brain failure early in the game.
5
Pompey - yeah. Scored a try. He is a depth player and is what he is.
6
Kodi Nikorima - It is absolutely imperative that he remain our goal kicker throughout the year. He will get better with more experience. More importantly it makes him more confident and he is a confidence player.
1 Line Break Assist 2 try Assists
7
Blake Green - Very effective. For those bagging our halves before last nights game - Blake is ranked 8th for try assists and Kodi 11th.
8
Jamayne Tounua-Brown - superlative performance.
9
Egan. As predicted he will grow into his role and did do a decisive dummy half run last night. He looks ginger about hitting it up but will grow further. Great kicking try assist for
Hiku's third. He was mentioned by the Cowboys pregame as one of our strengths."
Egan gives direction and structure to their middle third forays".
10
Burr- his experience was welcome
11
Katoa -we need a name. Maybe Krakatoa?
12
Harris - No matter how hard they tried to work the ball out of his carries they couldn't trouble his ball security.
13
Blair - he looks like a legit NRL power forward. Other teams are going to have to discuss how to neutralise him. You watch him on defence. He is really doling out punishment. He is our defensive enforcer. Last year people were mocking his one percenters. Saw him do about ten one percenter plays last night which were very helpful.
14
Karl Lawton - terrific utility to have at 14. Props to
Lawton and
Blake Green for using all their experience to get the ball in and out of a scrum with 5 minutes left. Cowboys were determined to get a tight head. And a lesser 7 like Hingano would have succumbed to their pressure. Both Green and
Lawton worked the ref and the rules nicely to execute the scrum.
15 Poasa - looks better with more experience. One run he did was electric in the 2nd half and it killed the Cowboys spirit. After that hit up we had the momentum for the next ten minutes. It is a bit questionable starting him ahead of
Paasi since we told the NRL we needed him because we were desperate.
16 King. I am not sold on him. Continues to commit errors. When fit would like
Curran to get a run.
Curran is a try scorer.
17
Murchie. He is my favourite Warrior right now. Plays like a young Dylan Napa. He plays mean and was enjoying giving out beats to the opposition. He is a real intimidator. Please can we sign this guy for three years. His contract is only for
2020.
Kearney: We looked like a well coached team.
Edited: Fixed typos.
