Duelling Knights halves outshone by teenaged ex-ballboy
Jasper Bruce |
Newcastle’s duelling halves Sandon Smith and Fletcher Sharpe have been outshone by uncapped former ballboy Kade Reed in St George Illawarra’s NRL pre-season win.
The jury appears out on whether Smith or Sharpe is best suited to partner marquee recruit Dylan Brown in the halves when the reigning wooden spooners open their season in Las Vegas next month.
“Obviously Dylan Brown will play next week (in the second trial), so I’ll only have one of them start there, so I’ll work that out in the next couple of days,” said new Knights coach Justin Holbrook.
“I’m happy with whichever way we go.”
Each played extended time in the Knights’ 28-18 loss on Saturday night, with Holbrook shifting Sharpe to fullback after halftime and giving Tyson Gamble his own chance in the halves.
Slick ball-runner Sharpe and ex-Sydney Roosters playmaker Smith both had their moments at Jubilee Oval.
Sharpe grabbed a Brodie Smith offload and found Kyle McCarthy on his outside for the Knights’ first try, and Smith looped a long ball for James Schiller to finish brilliantly in the right corner.
In his first game back from a lacerated kidney and damaged spleen suffered last year, Sharpe also came up with a big tackle on Setu Tu as the winger raided the right edge late in the first half.
“(Sharpe and Smith) are both very, very good players,” Holbrook said.
“I was happy with how they played, I thought we created some really good opportunities in the first half when they were in the halves together. There’s some good signs.”
But with only one NSW Cup appearance to his name, 19-year-old Reed finished as the pick of the playmakers.
“It was pretty surreal, to be honest, I wanted to do my best and put my best foot forward,” Reed said.
“Overall pretty happy.”
Reed is young enough to have been a ballboy for the Illawarra Cutters when current Dragons hooker Damien Cook was playing NSW Cup there early in his career.
Cook would have been proud watching from the sidelines as the youngster put a grubber kick past Sharpe to score the Dragons’ first try.
Reed also sent the Dragons over for their third try with a flat ball to a flying Josh Kerr, who returns from the Dolphins this season.
Perhaps Reed’s best moment was his effort to chase down Smith on a 60-metre tear, dislodging the ball from the halfback’s grasp.
Smith was clearly frustrated after Reed’s try-saving tackle and bounced up to give his opposite man a piece of his mind.
The Dragons halfback put the result beyond doubt throwing the last pass to Tyrell Sloan for a try down the right side in the final three minutes.
Reed is behind Daniel Atkinson, Kyle Flanagan and Lyhkan King-Togia in the pecking order for opportunities in the halves this year.
But coach Shane Flanagan would no doubt have been buoyed by the youngster’s efforts.
“Obviously the goal is whenever they think I’m ready, it’s up to ‘Flanno’, Mick (Ennis) and Dean (Young, assistant coaches),” Reed said.
“I’m going to try and put my best foot forward every day at training, hopefully play consistently good footy in Cup and see what happens from there.”
Uncapped winger Tu pushed his case for an NRL debut in Vegas with a 65-metre intercept try.
But he may have his work cut out holding Mathew Feagai out of the backline after he picked off a floating Gamble pass to score what proved the match-sealing try with 10 minutes to play.
AAP
