Alright status report over the 4 games the Penrith Australian schoolboys played in so far.
Stephen Crichton was probably Panthers' best player. If you don't know he's around 190cm so he's well suited to being a Corey Oates/Blake Ferguson type winger purely physically speaking. Out of the 5 Australian backs he was most willing to do hard yards to relieve the forwards. He showed some great speed for one of his tries, he has some skill with offloading/flick passing. Took an awesome intercept for what looked like an 8 point turn around. He does those high swirling kick offs and is a goal kicker. He played both centre and wing in these games. In the school boy cup he played fullback too. The competent teams mainly targeted the other edge but barring being out of position for a long kick he defended well from what I saw. Made a break to provide a shot at a 90 metre try on the last play of the game to win the game (it didn't work out).
If I had a some constructive criticism he doesn't consistently bend the line that someone who's comfortably the tallest guy on the field has the potential to do. He runs over blokes every now and then but there's a certain consistent physicality, a reckless abandon for your own body that you see in good first grade wingers that he's yet to develop. Still because of his footwork, size and acceleration he was able to break a fair amount of tackles.
Jayden Tanner is a tough, willing forward. Doesn't look huge but he's a nuggety type forward with some footwork. Played both second row and prop and and put on some good shots. Ran hard, couldn't ask for much more effort wise. Got away with a shoulder charge that nailed a bloke though. Has this thing around his head similar to the one Josh McGuire wears.
Ratu Nanovo did solid prop stuff for most part but dropped the ball twice in the big game against England. He claimed it was stripped but from the angle I couldn't see it either time. He put a big hit on when England were camped on their goal line and another on a one hit up but doesn't seem to read attack well enough to get in a position to put on more despite trying too. I presume he might be one of those islander boys who moved to Australia when he was around 14 and is a bit unfamiliar with some of the subtler aspects of the sport.
