NRL Round 11 Review: Breaking Down The Dragons Scrum Try, Kennedy, Burton & Nawaqanitawase

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“The NRL should be pretty proud of the competition they’ve got at the moment. They’ve got some great games, a great game tonight. All the teams are putting in, so it’s close. It’s hard.” - Wayne Bennett

What's to come this week:

• Drawing Up The Dragons Game Winner

• Quick Play-the-Balls

  • Kennedy On The Edge

  • Good Content

  • Burton’s Bomb

• Setting Up For A Shot: Nawaqanitawase In The Air

• Try Time: An All-Time Great Try

Big Takeaway From the Week: Drawing Up The Dragons Game Winner

Tackle one can make or break a set of six. First up here, we’re breaking down what makes for the biggest talking point of the week.

Scrums have seen a rival in recent seasons.

By being able to choose where on the field to pack the scrum, teams are able to script up set pieces against different defences.

Pack it in the middle and split 3-and-3 or 4-and-2. Move it to the tap line, and 6-and-0 provides the numbers for a long shift. Keeping one down the short side at 5-and-1 adds another option.

Despite the old heads and those in charge of the game not always seeing the value in scrums as an opportunity for excitement, attack coaches are making it more obvious every week.

The St George Illawarra Dragons were presented with a golden opportunity to score what ended up as the game winner from an attacking scrum. In a perfectly executed set play, Clint Gutherson crashed over to put his side 10 points in front. But it didn’t happen by accident. Without being in the coaches room, my guess is that they saw the cues in earlier games and scripted up a scrum they’d use if the opportunity presented itself.

If we go back to Round 2, we can see how the Brisbane Broncos defend this 3-and-3 split, which ended up 4-and-2 after Kaeo Weekes swung late.

Cory Paix ends up as the Broncos player trying to make up the extra number, quickly sprinting from the feed side of the scrum around to where the Raiders move the ball.

From a similar field position in Round 5, it’s more of the same.

Again it’s an even split as the Wests Tigers show two behind the scrum to start. As both players swing to the left, Paix again is the player to make up the number from feed side of the scrum.

There is no guarantee you’ll be presented with the ideal opportunity to execute on a set play for that given week. Still, the Dragons had it drawn up and ready should they earn a scrum in this exact position.

What looks like a regulation 4-and-2 split, with the Dragons playing to the four against the Broncos' three, becomes a perfectly crafted switch play.

Unlike the Raiders and Tigers, the Dragons show their 4-and-2 early. Lyhkan King-Togia is outside Kyle Flanagan, which leaves little doubt for Paix that he’s going to want to flip himself over as quickly as possible. Paix is so quick to leave that he’s out the back of the scrum before Damien Cook even picks up the ball.

As Cook jumps out, Jordan Riki does as he should for the Broncos by breaking hard and getting at the hooker. From a numbers perspective, if Riki is quick enough, he makes it a four-on-four with Adam Reynolds matched up with Tyrel Sloan with two outside him.

But Clint Gutherson is the key. He’s the indicator for this being planned by packing down in the second row. He would typically be out of the scrum and in a ball-playing position. Here, he’s tasked with popping out as soon as he can and beating the trailing prop back inside to the line.

The longer we get into the NRL season, the better these scrum plays seem to get. There is more vision on how teams defend, and with it, more opportunities for teams to script attacking plays.

With Cook’s speed on this one, it won’t be a surprise to see them set up the same way, but for him to burn the backrower and create a 3-on-2 out wide next time as the defence adjusts.

Quick Play-the-Balls

We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.

Kennedy On The Edge

It’s been good to see William Kennedy finally get the credit he deserves as a fullback recently. He’s made the early-season conversation around him being dropped for Nicho Hynes at the back look even more mind-numbing than it was at the time.

While he had his struggles under the high-ball, Kennedy laid on a beauty to capture the work he’s doing for the Sharks on the edges.

Shout-out to Blayke Brailey for his work in the middle. He’s spotted the lone marker and jumped out and across to engage four Storm defenders with his lead outside B. It’s where the space is created for Kennedy - and Siosifa Talakai - to work their magic.

By holding up his run and double-pumping the pass, Kennedy is able to turn Grant Anderson inside out. When Anderson makes his move on Kennedy, Xavier Coates responds by jamming on Talakai, but his hands are too quick.

No team runs this shift better than the Sharks, and Kennedy is a big part of their success on the edges.

Good Content

This is excellent stuff.

Add it to your podcast rotation for this week if you want to finish it knowing more about footy.

Burton’s Bomb

Contested kicks are still a regular talking point in NRL commentary boxes, but Cameron Ciraldo cleared things up even further in his post-game press conference.

Asked if it was intentional that Matt Burton isn’t sending the spiral bombs up quite so much this year:

“Yes,” Ciraldo said.

“He has a license to do it when he feels it’s the right time, but a lot of the time we just want to control where we put the ball. He kicks that torpedo bomb great, but it’s hard to control where it goes. Last year, probably 80% of the times we did it, we didn’t get a result out of it, so he’s got it up his sleeve when he needs it.”

Where they want to put the ball:

Right into the 10×10 box in the corner with a thick kick chase line flying at the winger tasked with not only catching the kick, but also finding their feet well enough to stay in the field of play.

The result is the field position gained on the back of it and the pressure it builds. These second-half comebacks aren’t a coincidence…

Setting Up For A Shot: Nawaqanitawase In The Air

Teams play to points with the following tackle in mind. Here, I’m touching on something to watch next week as we try to keep ahead of things happening on the field.

The Bulldogs kick plan leads us into another top-shelf post-game press conference…

Trent Robinson sees the game differently from almost everybody else. He can break things down in incredible detail, and thankfully, he adds some of that detail to his post-game press conferences¹ .

This week, he broke down Mark Nawaqanitawase's issues under the high-ball:

“I think there’s too much effort in the jump and the catch, it’s not through lack of technique, it’s not through the jump, it’s not through the catch. It’s probably through too much effort in the catch, so that’s actually an easy fix rather than a technical fix.”

So, what does it all mean?

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