Forwards.

Even since the days of junior league, forwards have seldom received much, if any love.

Generally, they were comprised of the bigger, fatter kids who weren’t overly popular but used their able bodies and made the necessary head way and space for the outside backs to work their magic – you know, those cooler, slimmer, fresh cut players whose eyes-gleamed with white-line fever and their mouths full of egotistical taunts towards their middle third brothers.

Forwards it would seem, did not receive much love.

Cast your eyes now to the NRL and from the casual fan’s perspective, little much has changed and to be fair, we all still glorify the athletic prowess of the attacking NRL back.

However, one can’t but help be in awe of not only the tenacity, but the aggressiveness of our forwards this year. With injuries, suspensions and a little thing called the salary cap scandal, our Eels forwards have had all the reasons in the world to not perform in 2016 – it’s just someone forgot to tell them.

It’s an effort that will not only have to be replicated, but is necessary in order for us to beat our opponents this week, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, who we struggled against in this department the last time we played.

Like many teams in the NRL, the forward battle is always key. If you control the ruck and field position both through metres gained and general play kicking, in addition with a low missed tackle rate, you invariably come out the victors of a rugby league match (or at the very least, go very close to doing so, as we have sadly found out on a couple of occasions this year).

Never is this truer than in our Round 15 clash this Friday night.

Now while Souths middle men might not be the dominant force they were two years ago, it was evidenced in our last encounter that it was Souths forwards who kept them in the game and set the platform to steal victory from our grasp at Pirtek Stadium in Round 10.

And while the cool kids may have received the accolades, it was their bigger, less popular counterparts who created the opportunity for them to do so.

Danger men: Sam Burgess and his brothers must not have the same level of influence over the Eels forwards as they did last month

Take a look at the statistics of Souths forwards that night (runs, metres gained, tackles and missed tackles):

Thomas Burgess: 11 runs for 123m; 27 tackles and 2 missed

Cameron McInnes: 8 runs for 44m; 38 tackles and 1 missed

Nathan Brown: 10 runs for 82m; 26 tackles and 1 missed

Paul Carter: 8 runs for 43m; 37 tackles and 11 missed

Kyle Turner: 7 runs for 66m; 29 tackles and 2 missed

Sam Burgess: 24 runs for 220m; 36 tackles and 2 missed

Jack Gosiewksi: 8 runs for 68m; 14 tackles and 0 missed

George Burgess: 6 runs for 57m; 18 tackles and 0 missed

With the exception of Paul Carter, that’s a pretty complete performance from the Rabbitohs big men. Most are averaging close to, if not more than 10m a run and no one missed more than two tackles.

Conversely, these were the statistics of our forwards:

Junior Paulo: 12 runs for 84m; 17 tackles and 1 missed

Isaac DeGois: 3 runs for 9m; 33 tackles and 6 missed

Peni Terepo: 8 runs for 67m; 19 tackles and 0 missed

Manu Ma’u: 20 runs for 166m; 19 tackles and 1 missed

Beau Scott: 9 runs for 69m; 28 tackles and 1missed

Tepai Moeroa: 11 runs for 76m; 25 tackles and 3 missed

Danny Wicks: 10 runs for 73m; 18 tackles and 1 missed

David Gower: 7 runs for 54m; 15 tackles and 0 missed

Kaysa Pritchard*: 6 runs for 48m; 12 tackles and 2 missed

*Note, Kenny Edwards was injured and Pritchard played a running forward game with DeGois playing almost the whole match at hooker.

There is little wonder why, that despite seeming in control for much of that match that the Bunnies found themselves in a position to steal it from us at the death. The difference in average metres per run, as well as the missed tackle rate in the middle tells much of the story.

Motivated: Danny Wicks, along with the rest of the Eels pack, will be keen to make amends for their last start against Souths

Now many of these players will be taking the field in our Round 15 fixture, however one thing will be missing this time round and that’s the cool kids.

See I’m not sure if you heard, but quite a couple of them were invited to a bigger better party this week – something called State of Origin? (Yeah don’t worry, I haven’t heard of it either) and as a result both sides will be fielding vastly different teams to that of the Round 10 game, most notably in the halves.

Greg Inglis ran for 152m from 13 runs, made 18 tackles with 0 missed, made 2 very crucial line breaks and 1 line break assist – all off the efforts of their forwards; Goal kicker Adam Reynolds, although off that evening, kicked the match winner from the sideline, regularly found space at the back kicking for over 300m and forced 4 line dropouts; similarly, for us, Michael Jennings ran for 133m from 14 runs, made 1 line break and 1 try assist.

So the absence of the Origin players will have an effect on this match and we’ll just have to make do with the rag-tag little rascals who turn up to this one. However, if you ask me, that’s just fine, and why?

Well with injury, suspension and Origin selection affecting both line-ups, it seems that someone forgot to extend an invite to some of our crew. As such, they’ve made commitments to come along to our party and that’s only going to enhance the quality and boost the profile of our Friday night shindig.

This is particularly pertinent when we talk of the likes of Corey Norman. His presence and the absence of both Adam Reynolds and Greg Inglis collectively swings the balance of this game in our favour; because when it really comes down to it, as much as we as the more passionate rugby league supporters love the forwards, it’s still the cool kids who will have the final say.

Inglis, Reynolds and Keary did in our last encounter; Norman was doing so up until that point, and again the statistics back this up. In fact when you compare the numbers of our outside backs against theirs, you learn why this game wasn’t a blow out in Souths favour.

Gordon and Semi ran for 176m and 155m respectively. The former making 1 line break, providing a try assist and kicking a couple of goals; the later scored 3 tries and made a line break of his own.

Corey Norman ran for 71m from his 9 carries, provided 1 try assist and kicked 17 times for 430m. As too did Takairangi who ran 76m from his 9 runs and also providing a try assist. Vai Toutai averaged over 10m a run from his 6 carries, made a line break and scored a try and the statistics of Michael Jennings have already been mentioned.

Conversely, the Rabbitohs only had one back outside of Inglis run for over 100m in Bryson Goodwin who just tipped over with 104m, with the next Kirisome Auva’a who only made 55m. Of the notable statistics from the Rabbitohs backs,  a couple had some line breaks and even a try assist, but they were mainly from movements and opportunities created from the inside men, rather than being moments of brilliance across the three-quarters.

Effective: The Eels backs were very strong against Souths in their previous encounter

As we can see from the above, it’s become apparent that the winner of this match will be determined by one of two things – how strong the Eels forward pack performs against Souths and how Souths will find a way to score points without their cool kids.

Make no mistake; Luke Keary, Cody Walker and Cameron McInnes can all hurt opposition teams on their day (and have even done so on a couple of occasions this year). However, this is usually because they have the safety net of being the supporting cast who chime in and aid the cause of the real show stoppers, Reynolds and Inglis.

But with their stars on Origin sabbatical, one has to question,‘How Souths little men will have their final say against the second best defensive team in the competition?’ because really, they’re just the extended members of the cool crew. Without their leaders they’re not quite as powerful or influential as they seem with them; and when it comes to the result of this match, the influence (or lack thereof) of these three will determine how our boys can play this one out, provided we match it with them in the middle.

While we’re being brutally honest here, the fact of the matter is we probably have a max of 24 points in us at the moment and I struggle to make a case for the Souths boys having that or more themselves. So the question then reverts back to the cool kids and what they can produce – and at the moment, Corey Norman is the coolest kid at this party.

Time to Shine: Corey Norman is the man to take the game away from South Sydney

If he can replicate and even better the kicking efforts and the attacking movements he created for Parramatta’s points last week in Darwin, then we should control this one. The forwards and middle will most certainly be where the game is played, however if the game is in the balance, it will be Corey Norman who has the final say.

If we don’t match Souths forwards in the middle third, then don’t be surprised to see the likes of McInnes, Keary and Walker produce the plays that create points against weakened defensive edges either side of the Eels ruck, particularly if they spend any considerable time inside our defensive 20m zone.

When one also considers that we have both our first choice centres unavailable; with Clint Gutherson filling-in in one spot, Vai Toutai in the other and the very talented but raw Bevan French playing on the wing; there exists an opportunity for Souths to exploit us.

However, with Beau Scott’s Blues invitation missing in the mail and Kenny Edwards defensive presence on the right edge against neither the fastest or most skillful outside Souths backs, one gets the feeling that the boys should be able to handle and shut down the majority of any potential threats on the fringes.

Which leaves us with the one caveat at play that will ultimately decide this one in the end – and that’s that with Corey Norman, we’re just a little bit cooler than Souths are.

Clint

All images courtesy of the Parramatta Eels, NRL.com and Getty Images.

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