NRL Round 7 Review: Early Field Goal, Tigers Attack & Super Sasagi

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NRL Film Room - Round 7 Highlights

Quick Hits

The Feature Reel: Try Field Goal of the Week

Why not take an early field goal if it is on offer?

We so often see teams, with the scores level, pass up a prime opportunity to take the lead and instead look for the knockout blow. Adam Reynolds managed to have a crack at both late in the Brisbane Broncos’ win over the Wests Tigers.

On the fourth tackle and with space in behind the line, the veteran half tried to roll one through for his back rower to score. But as the ball found it's way back into the hands of a Broncos player, Reynolds changed course.

He motioned to kick to the corner. The way he takes the ball from dummy half makes it look like he’s working across the field, positioning his body for a cross-field kick to his winger. With one eye on the defence around the ruck, he senses the opportunity against a line that has assumed he won’t attempt a field goal.

The risk has always been a seven tackle set following a missed field goal. However, with the new (and not-improved) six again rules and locations, teams can simply set themselves to defend the 20 metre tap and risk slowing the first tackle or two to level out the field position.

Unfortunately, we’re not seeing enough close games for field goals to be a common occurance, but I think we might to see them taken early a little bit more often.

Round 7 NRL Notes

Cowboys v Sea Eagles

• Tom’s Terrible Luck

• Cowboys Handling Errors Lead To Defensive Errors

• Tackle Breaking Trbo

Raiders v Storm

• Storm Left Edge: It’s a problem defensively. While they get up high and start square, there is a lot of movement on that side. Triangles are killer in rugby league, and it’s a common shape showing in the Storm’s left edge defence. After conceding early, that same edge not only failed to defuse an Ethan Sanders kick, but couldn’t clean up their mess for Corey Horsbugh to score.

  

• Standing Tackles Kill: I’m a Stefano Utoikamanu appologist at this point. I’m on a relatively uninhabited island as somebody who backed him as the right option for the NSW Blues last season and have already covered him as an underrated player to start this one. Part of what makes him so dangerous which doesn’t show up on the stats pages¹, is his ability to scramble the defence on the try line.

  

  His standing tackle on Friday night compressed the Raiders defence around the posts to make the shift to Will Warbrick on the edge all too easy.

  It allows Jahrome Hughes to skip across the four-man and into three to create the numbers advantage on the edge to score.

  

  The play-the-ball before points is, for me, the most undervalued statistic in the competition.

Tigers v Broncos

• Luai & Doueihi Linking: The Wests Tigers played really well withouth Jarome Luai. It prompted questions around how he would come back into the side, and the role he would play beside Adam Doueihi in the halves. While Luai has been a left-dominant player for the majority of his career, he got himself around the field against the Broncos on Saturday.

  He swang from the left to act as the middle service player with Doueihi shifting out to the second later where he so often looks his most dangerous. Coming back the other way, Doueihi stepped into the middle for Luai to play out the back of a block.

  Benji Marshall went as far as to bring Jock Madden on late in the game, which pushed Doueihi to the centres. Even then, Doueihi was able to move across from right centre to chime in on the far left edge as the Tigers went searching for a winner.

  

  Wests have a lot to figure out in their attack over the coming weeks. Their ceiling is heighest with Luai and Doueihi both firing, but they’re playing their best football right now with Madden straightening things up. Could this be where Latu Fainu makes his greatest impact?

Player Spotlight - Simi Sasagi

Nobody saw this version of Simi Sasagi coming in 2026.

His utility ability has proven valuable throughout his career, but he’s become a premier centre in the NRL after only seven rounds.

Sasagi carries the ball like a hulking backrower but has the footwork and offload of an outside back at speed. He can beat defenders in a variety of ways, and on the defensive side of the ball, is as reliable as any experienced center in the competition.

His inclusion over Matthew Timoko came as a surprise to most when the Round 1 teams were announced. Sasagi seemed nailed onto a six-man bench spot given the role he can play. However, Ricky Stuart saw something in the preseason, and we’re all seeing it now.

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1  Or even the highlights…