Best defensive technique???

[simon says]

Warching Beaver Menzies hits on Tuiaki on Friday night made me think about how good a technique this bloke has....IMO he is technically the best hitter of this era.....he gets down low and crunches players.

Tuiaki has been killing defenders all year but the Beaver owned him.

With this in mind......I have been going through the grey matter and have come up with my BEST EVER technical hitters.

Here they are.....

Terry Randall.....gee whiz this guy could put on a hit.....loved separating ribs from their owners.

Trevor Gillmeister......not a big feller,but would use every ounce of his body and centre it on the defenders belly and kapow.

Wayne Pearce......also not a big feller,but he could snap the biggest forward in two.....also equal to Steve Mortimer as the best cover defender I have ever seen....

David Gillespie.....most probably the most damaging of the lot.......not big but as solid as,and when he hit they stayed hit......very nasty and in nasty pack too.

Id be interested to hear any stories of the hits these blokes did or anyone else you may think I have missed out on.

Cheers.

 

[innsaneink]

Reading the title, beaver immediately came to mind.

Nigel Plum goes well, going way back, John Elford hit hard.

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

dallas johnson has one of the best, when he gets his head in the right place though lol

 

[Godz Illa]

Fui Fui is in the Tuiaki category and Ben Creagh dumped him on his back twice in one match. No discussion of perfect defensive technique is complete without a mention of Creagh.

 

[reptar]

Dean Lance

 

[lockyno1]

Johnson

 

[the_eel]

I think that there are a few little blokes that have pretty good defensive techniques as well. Lincoln Withers, PJ Marsh and Joey Johns generally had pretty good techniques for small blokes. I also agree however that Menzies and Plum are hard to go past for technique.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Anyone whio saw the Warriors V Dragons kickoff yesterday will know why I rate Sam Rapira as having one of the best front on defensive techniques. He gets straight in under the ribs and stops them cold.

 

[Snoop]

Menzies has been using that technique since he was a teenager. He's added a good shoulder charge (just ask Jason Smith) to his game but it's his classic tackling style that must bring a tear to the eyes of old timers sick of gang tackling.

 

[Bman26]

Matt Rua goes alright.

 

[Mal Meninga]

Plum has surprised me. His technique allows him to put shots on regularly with absolute ease.

 

[Red Bear]

best technique is hit around the hips and slide down - copybook tackle style

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Johns. Awesome technique and it was not unusual for him to flatten any forward in defence. He goes around the hips, picks up and drives. Looks spectacular

 

[MKEB...]

Peter Johnston knocked a few for six. I still crack up when he hit Gary freeman twice in one match.

That bugger could consistantly rack up the hits.

Anothere one was a young Joe Vagana.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Anyone whio saw the Warriors V Dragons kickoff yesterday will know why I rate Sam Rapira as having one of the best front on defensive techniques. He gets straight in under the ribs and stops them cold.

Another guy at the Warriors that I'd nominate is Simon Mannering, the number of one-on one tackles that he makes on opposition centres is outstanding. Very few players manage to go around him, he just cuts the legs out from under them.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

best technique is hit around the hips and slide down - copybook tackle style

That depends where you are defending- thats definiely the best technique for defending in the backline, just cut the legs out from under them (see my comment on Mannering). For defending closer in against big guys a more aggressive front-on technique is sometimes more effective.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Another guy at the Warriors that I'd nominate is Simon Mannering, the number of one-on one tackles that he makes on opposition centres is outstanding. Very few players manage to go around him, he just cuts the legs out from under them.

Mannering - 226/238 tackles made this season including 21 one on one tackles. 94.95% tackle success rate. Pretty useful even though there are times he can rush off his line and leave Manu isolated. As a second rower he'll definately be a defensive rock on one side of the field.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Nigel Plum and Dallas Johnson without a doubt.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Mannering - 226/238 tackles made this season including 21 one on one tackles. 94.95% tackle success rate. Pretty useful even though there are times he can rush off his line and leave Manu isolated. As a second rower he'll definately be a defensive rock on one side of the field.

I'd agree his defensive positioning can be a bit suss att times (although some of that might just be the whole team playing an up and in pattern) however his actual tackling technique is first class. I'm actually suprised his one-on one count isn't higher than that.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

I'd agree his defensive positioning can be a bit suss att times (although some of that might just be the whole team playing an up and in pattern) however his actual tackling technique is first class. I'm actually suprised his one-on one count isn't higher than that.

So am I. I think the NRLstats website is lagging behind a bit in their season stats section. Double checking now.

Mannering makes roughly 20 tackles a game and as far as I know he hasn't missed a game all year. His tackle count should be up around 360.

368/393 at 93.63% with 44 one on one tackles. He's almost always close to the top one on one tackler in Warriors matches which suggests teams are targeting him down that side. He's holding up well.