Sione Mata'utia and Beau Scott in the Australian squad

The problem is poor old Timmy failing to realise in the modern game you need a four man front row rotation. Poor Aaron Woods trying to combat their giants down the middle all evening. Sam Thaiday worn out after trying to play prop, Parker grey headed as me and past it, Bird's time has flown. Cordner has yet to play a good game after last year's serious injury, Pipalli lucky to get a run with Canberra's first grade this year let alone playing prop! Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk exhausted tackling forwards all night and Cherry Ripe softens when the going gets tough.

The Kiwis deserved the win as they looked stronger and tougher all night.
 
Did anyone else notice that Sione got that ball down at the end? The pass was called forward (it was flat) so they didn't bother checking the rest of the play but Sione actually beat two guys and got the ball down over the line with the rest of his body suspended above the ground over the touch line. So basically, if the touchy didn't call the forward pass Sione would have been a hero
 
Kenny Powers said:
Did anyone else notice that Sione got that ball down at the end? The pass was called forward (it was flat) so they didn't bother checking the rest of the play but Sione actually beat two guys and got the ball down over the line with the rest of his body suspended above the ground over the touch line. So basically, if the touchy didn't call the forward pass Sione would have been a hero
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I couldn't believe they mad no mention of first his pick up and then his finishing. Anyone who has doubts over the wraps placed on the kid should remember he's 18. Even when Manu scored he made plenty of contact and it certainly wasn't through lack of trying that he didn't stop the Beast.
 
Beaumont said:
I couldn't believe they mad no mention of first his pick up and then his finishing. Anyone who has doubts over the wraps placed on the kid should remember he's 18. Even when Manu scored he made plenty of contact and it certainly wasn't through lack of trying that he didn't stop the Beast.
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Well besides the fact I thought we were robbed with that final call, I was totally surprised that not even one commentator asked to watch a replay of that catch and finish.

The Beast made him look pretty average there, but then again I can't really think of a winger doing any better in that situation.

All in all his performances playing for Australia didn't reveal anything new about him as a player. I was hoping for something spectacular and all we got was solid and something tells me that even though Sione is a class player, I don't think he'll ever be spectacular and IMO he won't ever be a world class fullback, like Boyd for example, simply because he's not quick enough. I think the most we can expect from Sione is a world class centre, maybe as good as a Matai or a Lyon
 
He's not quick enough, what? He uses his speed and power to get over for tries in the corners, he's scored full field tries with his speed, he's not the fastest there is but speed is definitely not a weakness of his.
 
I learned something new, I learned that he's a fantastic player already for an 18-year old. Mixing all his performances for the Knights & Australia, he has shown he has a good mix of speed, finishing skill, calmness in setting up a player around him & not going for the try himself & also maturity & level headedness going off his interviews & what coach's say about him. His defence was better than I expected too, while he got smashed by Vatuvei, he made solid contact & made a lot of good tackles throughout the tournament too. So I think he's already at the standard to compete with most NRL wingers already, that is something special for an 18-year old rookie. I imagine there's alot of skill he hasn't shown yet, alot he will learn & he's got alot of growing to do also, I can just imagine him a few years down the track being Inglis sized. I didn't see enough of him before the Four Nations to say I wanted him in our starting 17 in Round 1, but I might have to change that now.
 
Junior11 said:
He's not quick enough, what? He uses his speed and power to get over for tries in the corners, he's scored full field tries with his speed, he's not the fastest there is but speed is definitely not a weakness of his.
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Look he's no slug, but at 18 yrs old he's arguably as quick as he'll ever be (given his body type and training type)

So yes he's quick enough to use speed as a first option in particular situations but when comparing him to his fellow backs at NRL level he's not a fast player, by any means. and if we matched him over 100m with every other FB in the comp I doubt he'd finish ahead of anyone
 
I don't think the Beast did make him look pretty average. He was caught out by a long pass and was only a bee's d1ck away from putting Manu into touch anyway and the second try he stood his ground and there wasn't a whole lot in that one either. Manu makes Uate look average almost every time they play. What Sione produced throughout the series I agree wasn't spectacular but he's 18. Regardless of the circumstances around Sione being selected he's the youngest ever person to be chose to represent Australia which tells me he's an extraordinary talent.
 
Defender1 said:
I haven't seen anyone run him down yet...
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Well you likely won't see that until he's in a foot race with someone who is faster then average. To this point I'm yet to his speed really tested. There was that one runaway try down the left sideline where he got outside two chasing defenders and pulled away. That was exciting to see but I remember thinking that the two defenders coming across to close the gap weren't that quick, one of them was a prop from memory

So basically what I'm saying is that, although we're yet to see someone run him down, we're yet to see him do what we know a Gagai or a Mamo can do. And if he wants to be a game changing FB he'll need to be at least as quick as those two
 
Kenny Powers said:
Well you likely won't see that until he's in a foot race with someone who is faster then average. To this point I'm yet to his speed really tested. There was that one runaway try down the left sideline where he got outside two chasing defenders and pulled away. That was exciting to see but I remember thinking that the two defenders coming across to close the gap weren't that quick, one of them was a prop from memory

So basically what I'm saying is that, although we're yet to see someone run him down, we're yet to see him do what we know a Gagai or a Mamo can do. And if he wants to be a game changing FB he'll need to be at least as quick as those two
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Watch the footage of his length of the field try against the Warriors. It was Tomkins and Henry he ran away from... To put yards on Tomkins, shows he's no slouch.
 
Speed isn't an issue with Sione. He's quick enough.
You don't need to be super quick. Inglis is really slow these days.
However, he doesn't really have great feet or extremely hard to tackle.
 
The ability to be tackled is a size thing for Sione at the moment I think. He is obviously very small at the moment being a teenager, with a couple of years of professional NRL training along with the natural growing of a 18-year old body to a 20+ year old body he should be able to get bigger & become a bit more a threat to the line.
 
If we are measuring him against guys who have played firstgrade fullback - he's faster than Pete and Gidley.

He also has some growing to do.
Pat has probably grown 3 or 4 inches since he was 18, and Chanel and Pete both grew a lot in under 20s too.
He could be built like a prop in 3 or 4 years - who knows?
 
Billy said:
If we are measuring him against guys who have played firstgrade fullback - he's faster than Pete and Gidley.

He also has some growing to do.
Pat has probably grown 3 or 4 inches since he was 18, and Chanel and Pete both grew a lot in under 20s too.
He could be built like a prop in 3 or 4 years - who knows?
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As I said above, he's quicker than Tomkins aswell.
 
You just have to go onto youtube and watch his tries to see how quick, powerful and skilful he is. And as Billy said, he's only going to get bigger and stronger...
 
Defender1 said:
Watch the footage of his length of the field try against the Warriors. It was Tomkins and Henry he ran away from... To put yards on Tomkins, shows he's no slouch.
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Yeah that's the one!

Just watched it again. He looks good, he's definitely the fastest out of his brothers which is lucky. But like I said, Ben Henry is an absolute snail, Snowden could keep up with him lol, so let's not kid ourselves. Tomkins on the other hand, that's a decent measure of Siones speed. But If you look at where Tomkins starts from (without momentum and 15 meters wide of Sione), as opposed to Sione who hit the ball on the burst. Then look where they ended up, which is basically the same distance they started from, then if you consider that Tomkins being at FB and looking spent as he started his chase as opposed to Sione who looked fresh as fk. All that stuff really ads up man

So to me that little piece of footage isn't very revealing. I'm yet to see what I'm hoping to see from him and just going by his body type I don't think he'll ever be that quick
 
Kenny Powers said:
Yeah that's the one!

Just watched it again. He looks good, he's definitely the fastest out of his brothers which is lucky. But like I said, Ben Henry is an absolute snail, Snowden could keep up with him lol, so let's not kid ourselves. Tomkins on the other hand, that's a decent measure of Siones speed. But If you look at where Tomkins starts from (without momentum and 15 meters wide of Sione), as opposed to Sione who hit the ball on the burst. Then look where they ended up, which is basically the same distance they started from, then if you consider that Tomkins being at FB and looking spent as he started his chase as opposed to Sione who looked fresh as fk. All that stuff really ads up man

So to me that little piece of footage isn't very revealing. I'm yet to see what I'm hoping to see from him and just going by his body type I don't think he'll ever be that quick
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Hopefully we get to see heaps of it next year. ;)
 
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