NRL Round 25 – Life After Cleary, Save Our Scrums, Melbourne’s Bag of Tricks

NRL Round 25 – Life After Cleary, Save Our Scrums, Melbourne’s Bag of Tricks

Oscar Pannifex

The Cleary Fallout

Nathan Cleary’s latest injury sent a shockwave through the competition last week.

With four-straight match winning performances since returning in NRL Round 20, Cleary and the Panthers looked unstoppable on their way towards a likely fifth consecutive Grand Final appearance.

Now, rival clubs will watch on with interest to assess the fallout of Cleary’s most recent setback. 

Reports out of Penrith suggest Cleary may yet return before the 2024 NRL Finals Series, and the Panthers are no strangers to getting a key player back for the business end of the season.

They can trust their systems from here to win through to September while Jarome Luai will get another chance to impress as the primary playmaker. 

Cleary’s absence will presumably hurt the Panthers attack but they’ve never really been a high-scoring, efficient offensive outfit.

Penrith win games with possession and field position, and while Cleary’s boot is key to this tactic, they’ve shown in the past that they can defend their way to the two points often enough.

With that in mind, Penrith’s right edge defensive unit will be a major focus for Ivan Cleary over the next month. 

Per Stats Insider, the Penrith Panthers have conceded 56% of their tries down the right edge this season.

No defensive unit (left, middle or right) has been spotted up more frequently throughout Penrith’s era of dominance than their right edge has in 2024.

We talk often at Rugby League Writers about the importance of combinations and cohesion, and the current state of Penrith’s right edge is testament to this.

Cleary’s absence throughout the year saw Brad Schneider and Jack Cole feature at different times while Sunia Turuva and Liam Martin – regulars on the Panthers right edge – have been in and out all season via injuries, form and/or representative duties. 

Izack Tago is the only familiar face on that side of the field right now and while you wouldn’t know by the numbers, Tago is having a tough year off the ball.

His tackle efficiency hasn’t necessarily dropped but that number doesn’t factor in the tackles you aren’t even in a position to miss. 

As recently as last week (see Grant Anderson’s try below), Tago has been consistently spotted up by attacking teams and pressured into poor decisions in defence this season.

He had excuses earlier in the year with a rookie half on his inside but the issues still remain today and Ivan Cleary must address it before the finals series. 

Penrith’s defensive systems have been the best in the competition for nearly five years.

They haven’t presented many chinks in their armour throughout that period but that right edge is asking to be targetted right now. 

I’m curious to see what changes Penrith make defensively over the next few weeks. 

SOS: Save Our Scrums (again)

NRL Round 24 gave us another few reminders that attacking scrums are a highlight of the modern game. 

The tactical battle between offence and defence is never more obvious or entertaining than when an attacking team falls into formation behind a scrum.

The current trend is to pack it from the middle of the field and split the defensive line in half, daring the opposition to either match your numbers on the edges or commit to the 3/3 split and trust their systems under pressure. 

We saw three almost identical tries last weekend as attacking teams punished the defence for matching the numbers from a midfield scrum. 

Melbourne used the speed of Ryan Papenhuyzen and the gravity of Jack Howarth to isolate Izack Tago at right centre on Thursday night. 

You can see Nathan Cleary retreating from the scrum here with Harry Grant and Howarth coming at him. 

Cleary backpedals to buy himself time to recover and slide out but Tago doesn’t mirror his movements.

Whether he slips or makes a poor read, Tago ends up too tight with Cleary and gives Papenhuyzen too much room on his outside. 

There was some debate over the legality of Howarth’s lead line here but the defensive breakdown is caused by Tago’s movements, not Cleary’s. 

North Queensland did similar things on their right edge through Jake Clifford, spotting up young Ethan Strange defending in an unfamiliar position in the centres. 

Clifford isn’t as quick as Papenhuyzen but Reece Robson does enough from the back of the scrum to create the space for his halfback here. 

Robson’s ability to straighten at Adam Cook’s inside shoulder forces the Canberra half to sit on his heels, subsequently inviting Strange to stay tight in the line.

That half a step Strange holds on Viliami Vailea is the half a step Clifford needs to slip on his outside and get the ball free for his winger. 

It was a rinse and repeat to gift Kyle Feldt his double last week and it’s a shape we can expect to see from North Queensland again while Clifford wears the No.7 jumper. 

Melbourne’s newest trick 

Wingers getting above the pack and batting back kicks for a teammate is nothing new in rugby league.

Melbourne have done it better than most in recent years with Xavier Coates a particularly appealing aerial target with his ability to catch and pass before hitting the ground. 

In NRL Round 24, Will Warbrick did a similar thing for Eli Kato to bag his 10th try of the season; albeit with a very minor adjustment. 

Watch Warbrick’s hands when he goes up for the kick here:

Instead of attempting to catch or strike backwards at the ball, Warbrick simply holds his hands together like a mini backboard and plays for the deflection.

Warbrick’s body position ensures there’s no risk of a knock on and he watches as the ball falls straight down into the space created by his jump. 

Given the proximity of Katoa (and Nelson Asofa-Solomona) here, I’m going to hazard a guess that this was intentional.

If so, it’s a very minor and very clever adjustment of a common and effective attacking action; there’s less risk of a knock on or wicked deflection if the wingers hands are held firm rather than striking or reaching for the ball. 

Keen an eye on attacking kicks this week and how wingers play for the ball in the air.

I’m expecting we might see rival NRL clubs try to emulate this new look over the coming month. 

Written by Oscar Pannifex | rugbyleaguewriters.com