Create your own second-phase. What do I mean by this? Running forward out of dummy-half for 4 or 5 metres before delivering the ball to another forward – and so effectively making a run (albeit a short one) before offloading to the second runner – you will create your own second-phase. Instead of making just the 10 – you might make 15 or 20. It only takes a couple of these in a row and the opposition is quickly on the backfoot. Ennis does this one well, but Farah’s “quarterback to running-back” style flat hand-offs out of dummy-half just won’t do the trick in Origin – let alone most any week-to-week NRL game. Passing flat from dummy-half to a runner won’t make an impact here. Make that quick dart yourself before offloading.

Watch for any opportunity where the marker is not ready. Lap up an easy 10 metres or more. A few simple runs from dummy-half can wear a defence down just through the speed of it all. 4 dummy half runs can take less than 20 seconds – and in this time the defence may have had to run backwards 40 metres of more. Its not rocket science. Make sure you take every opportunity.

This one I call the ten second theory. I came up with this believe it or not watching Parramatta back in 2001. They used to terrorise defences by just keeping the ball alive. But here is the theory – While watching my beloved Panthers getting carved up by the Eels one day, I noticed that with the Eels on the attack and the ball not tied up inside 10 seconds, I would start to panic. I thought, if a spectator starts to panic after ten seconds, maybe the players are panicking too? So I feel its not just the fact that the ball is being thrown around. I believe that once a defence has been unable to tie up a tackle inside ten seconds, panic starts to set into the defensive line. Something in the mind of the defender’s head triggers panic after just ten seconds. Panic then leads to rash and often bad decision-making in defence. NSW – just for a laugh try out the ten second theory tonight and tell me how you go. I’ll be counting. Remember QLD will do this to you too.