BroncsFan
International Captain
Contributor
- Jul 28, 2016
- 23,126
- 34,293
You need the threat inside the 20m as well... to me the play can almost run through the dummy half when it's inside the 5m.
When you watch the storm and see the ptb inside the 5m you can almost chalk up a try, because they work the ptb so well and the forwards are so good at recognising and knowing where to run to put themselves in a position to be a threat and force the defence to pay some attention to them.
If your dummy half isn't a threat then all your tries are dependent on backline movements, that becomes much harder when the defensive line can race up on your backline inside the 10-15m because they don't have to worry about your dummy half.
For us Turps offers next to nothing and his forced pass to Flegler was horrendous on many fronts. The play didn't appear to be on at any point. Conditions didn't warrant it, ptb speed didn't warrant it and the defensive line didn't warrant it, Turpin then didn't use any deception or try to disguise the play at all and decided to double down further by throwing a bullet pass to Flegler who had 3-4 defenders in his face.
A good dummy half would instead utilise Flegler's run as a decoy and send it out to the backline noting the amount of attention the defence put on Flegler and therefore how much space would be available to the backline.
Paix has shown that he can get over the try line when he's close, but I hope he doesn't become a one trick pony and go to it all the time, which he did twice in the final 5mins. Both times it was on, but it's not always going to be there at NRL level so he will need to find other ways to be a threat close to the line.
What was good on his actual try was the little dummy he threw to take Bryant out of the play and give him a clean run to the line, instead of just blindly running to space.
It would've been nice if he was able to put one of his forwards over the try line or create some space for some of his forwards. I think he gave it a go with TC down the blindside (I think it was Paix anyway), but it didn't really get close. The play was on, but he pretty well telegraphed it.
It would seem like Paix will be on the bench this year, mainly because Billy will likely be starting at 6, but it would be nice to see Paix get another full year in ISC to develop further.
He pretty well became one of Souths go to players last year, but if he got another full year in ISC they may start running their play through him more now knowing what he's capable of. It would be nice to see him expand his attacking play down in ISC for the year, but maybe getting 30 or so minutes in NRL each week will be helpful as well to start working out what works against NRL defences.
If he's put on the bench for NRL and then only playing 15mins or so a game, then I can't see it helping his development at all.
