The Synopsis - NRL Round 2

Two issues swirled around Rugby League circles this week and it's likely that both will be with us for a while. First, what will happen to the Gold Coast as they struggle to field their best team while having five players unavailable? Secondly, how will Manly cope (on the field) with the loss of Daly Cherry-Evans and (now confirmed) Kieran Foran.

Both had answers, of a sort, offered over the weekend.

The Titans tried hard in the first half but faltered in the second conceding 40 points overall to Penrith, in that teams annual visit to Bathurst. Sadly just over 6240 paying guests bothered to leave their couches for Penrith's once a year visit to the Central West region of NSW. Penrith, and their Bathurst City Council Sponsors, could not have been happy with the small crowd. Who knows how much the Titans scandal and understrength team affected attendance although the fine weather and early season match were blamed as well.

250 km east of Bathurst, a larger (10,500) much noisier Saturday night crowd turned up to cheer on the Sea Eagles, who showed the resilience they are renowned for in defeating Melbourne 24-22 at 'fortress' Brookvale. The star of the show was departing halfback Daly Cherry-Evans. Performances of that quality week in week out will keep the Manly fans minds off, next season. Sadly, the "Voldermorts" deprived Melbourne of two tries and the win. With the loss to Parramatta in round one and a lucky win tonight, no one would be brave enough (just yet) to suggest Manly will be around in September.

Canterbury and Parramatta gave professional displays in Friday night's main game. They were both strong in defence and created opportunities in attack. The Bulldogs had more ball in the early part of the match, but were not able to break through the Eels defence. The final score was not a true indication of the closeness of the contest for the first 60 Minutes. However with 55% of possession and 83% completions, Coach Hasler's men wore the Eels down, running in two late tries to seal the win 32-12. As well as losing on the scoreboard Parramatta paid a big price losing Winger Radradra and Centre Beau Champion with long term injuries. Luckily, injured Halfback Sandow returned to the field and seems unlikely to be hampered by his ankle. Parramatta's team for Round 3 will be very different to Round 1 putting their new found discipline and defence to the test.

Meanwhile over at the Sharks home, Brisbane gave just enough to get their first win and Cronulla extended their run of Shark Park losses to nine on the trot. The final score Brisbane 10 - Cronulla 2, left local fans with nothing to cheer about. Cronulla's attack is struggling and Coach Flanagan must be wondering how long he can wait for star recruit Ben Barba to find form. (However it would be unfair to blame the Sharks slow start on him alone). Despite 53% possession and 5 extra penalties, the best the Sharks could do was to kick a Penalty as half time loomed. The teams (between them) managed just 1 line-break and neither will have much impact on the competition if the first two weeks are indicators.

The Titans have a good excuse, the Sharks are looking for excuses but how are we to understand the other teams with two losses in two weeks, the Cowboys and Dragons.

The Townsville team, with arguably the world's best player in Jonathan Thurston and leading 14 nil after 28 minutes - almost everyone (at the ground and watching on pay TV) expected the Cowboys to lock in their first win. It was not to be. Newcastle fought back to lead 16 - 14 with 8 minutes to go, and held on to win their 2nd match for the Season. As a team that struggles away from home, two losses before they hit the road must be a worry for Coach Green. The Knights, on the other hand, fly to the Gold Coast this Sunday and even if Titans Coach Neil Henry has some or all of his five players returned, will start favourites to be 3 and 0, on Sunday night.

The Dragons are, by all accounts, just awful in attack and last night their forwards were steam rolled in the first half hour by an enthusiastic Tigers pack. With the space provided up front, half-back Luke Brooks and fullback James Tedesco cut the Dragons defence to bits. It was 20 nil within 30 minutes and although the Dragons were able to score a try just before half time, they never looked like threatening the Tigers line, after that. In Week one the pundits said the Dragons attack was too deep and last night they were too flat with forward passes from dummy half and handling errors blighting the opportunities they did have. The final score 22-4 flattered the Dragons. The Tigers missed 31 tackles but it didn't help their opponents as the Dragons managed just one line break to the Tigers four. One aspect of the Saints approach deserves comment. Their two biggest and most experienced forwards, George Rose and Trent Merrin, sat on the bench while the on-field group were smashed by Aaron Woods and Keith Galloway. By the time Coach McGregor rotated his reserves onto the field the match was practically gone. Why Merrin, especially, can't get in the starting six is a mystery, unless he's being punished for signing with the Panthers for 2016.

Round two's matches cannot be signed off from, without giving recognition to the high flyers in this year's NRL competition. The South Sydney and Eastern Suburbs teams were fantastic. Barring dramatic personnel changes from injury these two teams will likely lead the competition from start to finish. The Sunday afternoon match was all that league fans could ask for. Magical attack from talented players like Greg Inglis (Bunnies) and Michael Jennings (Roosters), hard hitting defence from two sets of forwards and (with the extra time provided by rule changes) highly skilled contributions from both "dummy halves" Issac Luke from South's and stand in Matt McIlwrick for Easts. (Roosters Co-captain Jake Friend is not due back for another 6 weeks.) The score bounced back and forth between the two teams and when South's hit the lead 28-26 in the 69th minute, no one would have argued if it finished that way. Issac Luke scored from dummy half in the 79th minute pushing the difference out to 8 points. I hope the other 14 coaches insist that their teams watch this match, because this is the standard they must aim for, week in, week out.

Another 7/8 games watched this week and I'll make a point of seeing how the Warriors and Raiders perform in Round 3. The Warriors are at home to the Eels and the Raiders at home to Dragons.