Mitch Moses has left the door ajar for Ethan Strange to take his State of Origin spot for the decider against Queensland after an ‘unusually poor’ night in Parramatta’s loss to Souths. Moses had an unhappy 250th game as the Rabbitohs blitzed the Eels 32-12.
The Parramatta halfback made four errors and missed six tackles, and wasn’t at his free-flowing best in attack. Moses was controversially picked at five-eighth for NSW in Origin 2 after Strange performed brilliantly there in Game 1 – albeit against a 12-man Queensland side.
Mitch Moses had a shocker in defence (L) in Parramatta’s loss to Souths. Image: Channel 9/Getty
Moses failed to fire in Game 2, and many have been calling for Strange to win the starting spot back. After Moses’ performance on Thursday night, Strange has a golden opportunity to stake his claim against the last-placed Dragons on Sunday.
Moses was particularly poor in defence on Thursday night after he also missed seven tackles in Origin 2. On two occasions he let Cody Walker stroll past him for easy tries.
Matty Johns said after the game: “Mitch Moses had an unusually really poor night in defence.” Eels legend Nathan Hindmarsh added: “Both of those Walker tries he slid out when he didn’t have to. It wasn’t a good 250th. That’s every milestone game he has lost.”
Cooper Cronk described Moses’ defence as “really bad”, adding: “In game 250, Mitchell Moses hasn’t really hit the scoreboard or had an impact. That is bad defence because someone like Cody Walker will feel the space and sense it.”
Calls grow for Ethan Strange to replace Mitch Moses
On social media, fans were left calling for Strange to start at five-eighth for NSW in Origin 3. One person wrote: “Needing a big game, Mitch Moses has likely played himself out of a State of Origin jersey tonight.”
Another commented: “Surely Moses has more than played himself out of the Blues team.” While a third added: “Moses has made it easy for Laurie (Daley) after tonight. It’s Ethan Strange in the 6 for Game 3 surely.”
Mitch Moses had a shocker in his 250th NRL game.
(Matt King)
The Eels shot themselves in the foot with 17 errors and 36 missed tackles with a completion rate of just 60 per cent. “I probably don’t have the vocabulary to articulate how I actually feel, so disappointing is probably one way to put it,” coach Jason Ryles said.
“It was self-inflicted that Souths didn’t have to earn a whole heap of what they did. They made their one-on-one tackles on the try line and we didn’t.”