#KiwiNRL Encyclopedia: Titans and Bulldogs Won?
Victories for Gold Coast Titans and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs haven't been too frequent recently and in both their wins from latest round of NRL footy, there were a few notable #KiwiNRL performances. I'll suss out those and then ponder the strongest forward pack that Aotearoa Kiwis could serve up.
In defeating Wests Tigers 28-23, the Titans once again looked to their young forward Moeaki Fotuaika to play a significant role through the middle. The effort and intensity of Queensland forward Jai Arrow tends to get the most attention, although tweaks to the NRL's rules and style of play only amplify the need for a dynamic forward to roll down the field. That's exactly what Fotuaika delivers and after a super efficient performance against North Queensland Cowboys a round prior, this time around Fotuaika stacked up the numbers.
Fotuiaka finished with 21 runs for 217m @ 10.33m/run and his 93 post-contact-metres averaged out to 4.38pcm/run. Chuck in 3 tackle breaks and 31 tackles @ 86.1 percent efficiency and we are graced with a gauge of what Fotuaika can offer on a steady basis. Coming up against Jason Taumalolo last week, Fotuaika only had 11 runs but averaged a whopping 14m/run and 4.90pcm/run, while also racking up 43 tackles @ 95.6 percent.
Those are two very different, but excellent performances from Fotuaika and they came with similar game time (56mins and 57mins). New Titans coach Justin Holbrook has eased Fotuiaka into his work this season as Fotuaika missed round one with injury, then played 37mins in round two followed by 50+ minutes in the two games of the NRL's restart. Fotuaika's stats have followed suit with Fotuaika's PCM slowly building (29pcm, 54pcm, 93pcm) as he has enjoyed more touches of the footy (9, 11, 22).
In a direct comparison to Arrow, Fotuaika averages 11m/run from 40 runs (all season) and Arrow averages 9.29m/run from 47 runs. The difference in minutes played between these two has Arrow making a lot more tackles than Fotuaika (133 vs 99), but Fotuaika's ability is evident in having similar running stats to Arrow despite play almost 100mins less than Arrow.
There were also positive signs from the likes of Kevin Proctor and Sam Lisone. Proctor scored a try in his 80mins on an edge and put up a solid 10 runs for 82m @ 8.2m/run, along with 3 tackle busts, an offload and 34 tackles @ 91.9 percent. Joining Fotuaika and Arrow in the starting middle trio, Lisone played 39mins with 89m from 9 runs @ 9.88m/run and 22 tackles @ 88 percent.
Lisone is known as a forward who can make a variety of passes, which could be very useful for the Titans in this version of NRL footy. However, Lisone only made 3 passes vs Tigers and that followed the loss vs Cowboys in which Lisone also had 3 passes. I view that as coach Holbrook simplifying Lisone's role and with Lisone offering oomph alongside Fotuiaka, while Arrow does his thing, the Titans could be alright.
There was also a notable change at hooker with Erin Clark getting his first start for the Titans after moving from local Auckland footy last season to a train and trial deal on the GC over the summer to then being signed full-time. Clark had a couple errors in his 49min stint before Tanah Boyd came on for the last 31mins, but his all-round skill was generally on display as he scooted out of dummy half twice, had 2 kicks, grabbed a try assist for Proctor's try and made 31 tackles @ 91.2 percent.
Here's Clark firing a pass from dummy half to help isolate Proctor against Harry Grant and Benji Marshall (two little blokes), thanks to a nice line from Proctor...
And one of Clark's kicks came from straight up effort as he quickly made a move to get onside, receiving a pass from Ash Taylor to then kick...
There is no shortage of #KiwiNRL funk from the Bulldogs' 22-2 win over Dragons and the Dragons genuinely look diabolical, so keep that in mind. For the Dogs though, this win was lovely and like the Titans making a few changes, Bulldogs coach Dean Pay's changes paid off. Playing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak on the wing allowed Will Hopoate to offer his classy touches from fullback, more importantly though it puts Watene-Zelezniak in a simple role where his energy and aggression is perhaps more useful.
Here's Watene-Zeleniak's stat line:
26 runs for 266m @ 10.23m/run, 2 tackle busts, 5 offloads.
Low key, Kiwis fans should also be playing close attention to Reimis Smith who is doing a fine job at centre for the Dogs. Nor should anyone overlook another 80min effort from Jeremy Marshall-King at hooker who had 2 scoots for 24m and 49 tackles @ 89.1 percent. I've got two major areas of focus though, starting with the Kieran Foran influence.
Here are the involvement splits for Foran and Lachlan Lewis…
Foran: 8 runs (84m), 47 touches, 4 kicks.
Lewis: 9 runs (64m), 65 touches, 21 kicks.
Lewis had almost 20 more touches and a whole lot more kicks than Foran, so we can't pretend like Foran completely changed the equation for the Bulldogs. In combination with the positional switches at fullback, the inclusion of Foran obviously had value though and this was evident in his direct running (10.5m/run); Foran's value was probably most evident on the training park and around the team.
Finally, we have Renouf To'omaga and Raymond Faitala-Mariner who play their roles in a rather nifty forward pack. There are plenty of effective NRL workers in this Bulldogs forward pack, there's the big body of Dylan Napa and then the power/mobility of To'omaga and Faitala-Mariner.
Otahuhu's Faitala-Mariner started on an edge and served up 14 runs for 156m @ 11.14m/run, 4.72pcm/run and a lovely 37 tackles @ 97.1 percent. This was the first time Faitala-Mariner has played 80mins on an edge this season.
Porirua's To'omaga came off the bench again to play through the middle and in just 22mins, To'omaga had 8 runs for 117m @ 14.62m/run, 2 tackle busts, 1 offload and 13 tackles @ 92.9 percent.
Here is my best Aotearoa Kiwis forward pack right now:
Middle: Jesse Bromwich, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, James Fisher-Harris.
Edges: Tohu Harris, Briton Nikora.
Hooker: Brandon Smith.
Bench: Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Joseph Tapine, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Isaac Liu.
If you want a hooker on the bench you can chuck in Danny Levi and obviously that's a bunch of my favourite Kiwis forwards in the NRL at the moment, so how does your top Kiwis forward pack shape up?
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Peace and love.