Boyd's mission to get 'The Jet' involved

[Super Freak]

Wayne Bennett will give him all the time he needs to find his lightning fast feet but Broncos teammate Darius Boyd says he will take it upon himself to get excitement machine James Roberts more involved.

Although the Bronocs have begun their 2016 campaign with wins over the Eels and the Warriors Roberts has been unable to find the time and space that netted him a club-record 16 tries for the Titans in 2015.

That is of absolutely no concern to coach Bennett who will show Roberts the same faith that he extended to Anthony Milford and Adam Blair last season but Boyd is aware there is a talent not yet being fully utilised.

Boyd gave the presence of Roberts on his outside credit for his second half try that iced the 25-10 win against the Warriors but did admit that he and the rest of the Brisbane playmakers need to find ways to get 'The Jet' into space.

"I don't think I would have scored that try if we didn't have Jimmy in the centres to be honest," Boyd said.

"I know they had some injuries and some other guys went out there for them but if there's someone else out there I don't know if that guy would have slid off.

"Sometimes it doesn't come your way when you play in the centres. Last week we really attacked the left side so it was away from him and that just happens some days.

"It's going to take time but he's doing his part for the team and that's all you can ask."

Over the course of the first two weeks of the season Roberts has had 17 runs for a total of 110 metres but has made 30 tackles and missed just two lining up against Michael Jennings and Solomone Kata.

Having only joined the Broncos in December much of Roberts' transition to his new surroundings has been spent shoring up his defence on Brisbane's right-hand side, Boyd confident his impact in attack will soon be felt.

"It's going to take time. Last year it took time when Milford came on board and it took time to gel and it's the same with Jimmy," said Boyd, whose try on Friday night was just his seventh in his past 34 NRL games.

"We've got to try and get him more ball and work out what the best way is to do that but in the meantime he's coming in and doing the runs and doing his part for the team.

"He was the Gold Coast's main weapon and we're very lucky here to have a whole heap of them so we don't have to rely on him which is a positive.

"In saying that, we still want to get him some good ball and we want to see him in space and doing what he can do.

"As long as he's coming in and getting those runs and working hard that's all we can ask.

"He looks likely in a couple of those runs that he's had, it's just going to take a bit of time."

Boyd's mission to get 'The Jet' involved - NRL.com

 

[I bleed Maroon]

If you want to get him involved, you might wanna try passing to him, Darius you selfish fucker lol

 

[Alec]

Darius doesn't really pass much, and when he does, he struggles passing left to right anyway. It's either up to Hunt to get him more invovled, or for him to move on the left side.

 

[xratedrattice]

Darius doesn't really pass much, and when he does, he struggles passing left to right anyway. It's either up to Hunt to get him more invovled, or for him to move on the left side.

Darius doesnt pass much ? Are you serious ? Other then kick returns he passes way more then he runs.. he just doesnt sweep around as much on the right side because hunt doesnt run as many block plays whereas milfs sides always running decoys for boyd out the back.

Id like to see milf drift out right more to play off hunt in a big sweeping play out to roberts from far out and let him rip... hopefully he torments penrith

 

[broncos4life]

Darius doesn't really pass much, and when he does, he struggles passing left to right anyway. It's either up to Hunt to get him more invovled, or for him to move on the left side.

 

[Taylor1921]

Didn't Bennett want Boyd because he take the pressure of the young halves with his playmaking ability? :/ dumbest comment I've seen all year

 

[mitch222]

If there is one thing Darius Boyd isn't, its a ball hog. The dude is always laying on sweet passes for his backs to get into open space.

Re Roberts, just give him time. It took Milford 5-6 games last year to ease into the squad and its gonna take Roberts the same too. Hunt will figure out where he likes the ball and we will be rolling on that right hand side as well.
But yeah, its not like our left hand side attack is letting us down so while ever its getting really good results, they are going to keep going there and so they should

 

[broncos4life]

Darius doesn't really pass much, and when he does, he struggles passing left to right anyway. It's either up to Hunt to get him more invovled, or for him to move on the left side.

I actually need to know, did you mean this? or were you trolling?... personally I'm hoping for trolling.

 

[winslow_wong]

I'm sure he'll score some smoking tries this season. Give it some time. Plus he's replacing hodges, big shoes to fill.

 

[Sproj]

It is kind of exciting to think that we have been winning fairly easily despite not actually playing that well yet and one of our many big guns yet to fire anything.

 

[Dash]

It is kind of exciting to think that we have been winning fairly easily despite not actually playing that well yet and one of our many big guns yet to fire anything.

It's reminding me a lot of last year (Round 1 aside). We kept racking up the wins, despite not playing all that well, with Milford yet to find his feet. Once Roberts finds his groove, we'll be well on our way to repeating last year's efforts, hopefully with 5 seconds worth of improvement.

 

[KnToad]

Something else that needs to be considered is that Roberts had a breakthrough season last year at the Tits so the other teams are now well aware of his explosive speed and have made sure that he gets no room to move. It will be difficult for him to find any clear air while they are gunning for him. As the team gels they will work out how to find him some space to show off his speed but the other coaches will be reminding their defences to give him no room to move or he will blow them away.

 

[Porthoz]

I don't care if Roberts scores tries, but he's already creating space for Gillo, and undoubtedly will create more room for Kahu as well.

 

[Astro]

I don't care if Roberts scores tries, but he's already creating space for Gillo, and undoubtedly will create more room for Kahu as well.

Exactly right and we saw that last week with gillo and boyd going through untouched.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Roberts was certainly more involved tonight but only in the first half. He is definitely struggling to find his feet in the side and not getting many options from Hunt is contributing.