jirskyr
Well-known member
Also illustrates beautifully how important young Chris Lawrence was, same as Gareth Ellis, and how having players who are willing to run difficult lines is an important way to disrupt the defence.
Of course there are naturally gifted players like Gasnier who demanded early ball, but if you have big strong runners who can learn to run holes all game, and maintain that work ethic (because it's easy to get lazy or tired doing so much off-ball effort), they become a crucial part of your attack.
Benji gets on the outside because Lawrence reads the play (the decreasing width after Benji shrugs from the attempted tackle) and runs hard to the inside. Given that the defender (Jeff Robson) knows "Marshall to Lawrence" is a standard Tigers attack play, and he's probably been preparing for it all week, the shift of gears by Lawrence to the inside causes Robson to plant his feet and Benji's great dummy sells the fake.
Grothe can no longer trust the inside cover to catch Benji and it sets up arguably the greatest flick pass you will ever see. In fact I'd argue it's not really a flick pass at all - yes it's behind the back, but flicks are usually fast passes to players coming back against the grain (e.g. the GF pass to Richards). This is instead a standard outside pass modality (draw the winger and pass out to your wing), but Benji holds the ball so long to ensure that Grothe is committed, that he can only execute around the back. And Grothe's no fool, he knows it's coming and still almost recovers to push Ayshford out. Half a second earlier from Benji and Ayshford gets tackled.
