NRL 2021: Wests Tigers vs. Newcastle Knights, Magic Round, Tommy Talau flick pass leads to Starford To’a no try

Trailing 22-4 with ten minutes left in the first stanza, the Knights needed a special play to inject them back into the contest.

Playmaker Kurt Mann put up a towering bomb on the last play, aiming for young Tiger Tommy Talau.

Mann’s bomb was picture perfect, pushing the winger close to the sideline inside his own 10 metre line.

As he took the catch, Talau tried to put a foot on the touchline so the kick would be ruled out on the full.

However, he made a mess of the manoeuvre, throwing the footy away with a no-look flick pass.

Unfortunately, the pass landed in the hands of Talau’s opposite number, Starford To’a, who crashed over for what appeared to be the Knights’ second four-pointer of the evening.

“It’s an awful moment for young Tommy,” said Fox League’s Andrew Voss in commentary.

“It’s a crazy moment,” agreed premiership-winner Braith Anasta.

On field referee Grant Atkins awarded the try, but the madness didn’t stop there.

Upon inspection by The Bunker, the try was spectacularly overturned. Replays showed To’a losing possession of the ball as he fell to the turf, leaving Knights fans reeling and Talau exhaling with relief.

Fans could barely believe their eyes, taking to social media to call the play “the dumbest moment of 2021”, “the most Wests Tigers thing ever” and a “lucky mistake”.

It was a selection move previously described as madness but Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire’s positional switch of Moses Mbye and Adam Doueihi ultimately proved to be a magical masterstroke.

The Tigers were scintillating in a 36-18 carve-up of the Newcastle Knights in the Magic Round opener at Suncorp Stadium.

Mbye rediscovered his attacking mojo after being switched to five-eighth and Doueihi was unstoppable in the centres and toyed with feeble Knights defence as the Tigers raced to a 24-4 halftime lead.

“The decision to move Doueihi has proven to be sensational,” Anasta enthused in Fox Sports commentary.

All the Tigers’ key men were at their sensational attacking best with half Luke Brooks running the ball with freedom and fullback Daine Laurie chiming in as the perfect link man.

The carnage continued in the second stanza as the Tigers kept their foot on the throat. There was to be no miracle second half comeback for the Knights this week, with the loss of talisman Kalyn Ponga to a groin injury leaving a hole that replacement custodian Tex Hoy was unable to fill.

Tigers great Ben Elias had labelled the side’s defence as “under 7s stuff” after the 36-28 loss to the Titans last week as league legend Gorden Tallis weighed in to criticise the club’s “soft underbelly”.

As much as the points bonanza would have pleased coach Maguire, it was the single digit missed tackles in the first half – just nine – that would have pleased him most, including several desperate efforts on the tryline.

MADGE FINDS FORMULA

It wasn’t just the switch of Doueihi and Mbye that ignited the Tigers. Much maligned half Brooks thrived with his new halves partner Mbye as he took control when the game was crying out for a stamp of authority in the first half.

“This is the Luke Brooks we know. He is owning this team,” Anasta said in commentary.

Brooks ran for 183m but it was his air of confidence and determination to be the man to make the difference in the big win that could prove to be the turning point in his season.

FOUR SIN-BINS

Knights fullback Tex Hoy and back-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon, along with Tigers forward Joe Ofahengaue and Mbye on the stroke of full-time, fell foul of a crackdown on repeated ruck infringements close to the line after match officials had been instructed by the ARL Commission last week to up the ante with their enforcement.

The Commission’s new rules punishing contact with the head had the desired impact in the Magic Round opener.

The rules stipulated that direct or forceful contact to the head was to be regarded by referees as a sin bin at a minimum and that even minimal contact be punished with a penalty and the offender being placed on report.

No-one was sin-binned for attacking the head but Knights forward Mitch Barnett was put on report for a glancing blow to the head of Tigers hooker Jacob Liddle.

KNIGHTS FADING

The Knights have been sluggish out of the blocks this year and without Ponga, there was little energy or direction in their attacking play.

With Mitchell Pearce also absent for an extended period with injury, the halves pairing of Kurt Mann and Phoenix Crossland does not give them the game management or the creativity that they will need to make an impact on the top eight.

Compound that with a leaky defence that shows little sign of any improvement and a season that started with so much hope is already looking bleak.