A solid, whole-hearted effort there from a team that is missing alot of stars (J.Folau, Tanginoa, K.Pritchard, V.Toutai, Jnr Paulo etc).
There are still concerns about our edge defence as St George were able to crack us open on the edges on several occasions but Broadhurst in particular lifted his traditionally poor defensive game several notches as he acquitted himself very well against the highly rated Runciman.
Parramatta were well served across the park today. In the forwards there were lion-hearted efforts from Daniel Alvaro and Joseph Ualesi who constantly put their hands up on both sides of the ball. Both displayed massive tickers and I don't imagine it would go unnoticed by the coaching staff.
They were backed up by strongs games from Pauli Pauli and Diamond Charlie which in turn gave Dockar-Clay and Vescio precious time and space from dummy half.
Brasington turned in yet another rock solid effort from the back (although I maintain he is a better half) and his prodigious boot was key once more, both in general play and for conversions. The outside backs were solid in general but there were some simple mistakes from nearly all of them throughout the game. That said Moeakiola, Lavaka and Aukafolau all provided strong carries early in our sets to give us a good platform to build on.
In the halves, Daoud was easily the stand out. He looked very comfortable with the ball today, constantly pressuring the line by making the both the short option and the sweeping option equally dangerous threats. In particular, his combination with Brasington proved the difference at key moments in the game. Gorman had a mixed game, he definitely was guilty of overplaying his hand with both the run and pass. He is still an intriguing prospect though as his running game is particularly dangerous.
