Zac Lomax has opened up about the selfless act that went a long way to helping NSW win game one – and ensured he was voted man of the match by his Blues teammates.
Brian To’o’s sin-binning on the brink of half-time at Suncorp Stadium, for tackling Xavier Coates in the air, left NSW needing to survive the opening ten minutes of the second half defending with 12 men.
Lomax had watched the Maroons send all their attacking kicks to Coates’s side of the field, where the towering Maroons winger enjoyed a hefty height advantage over To’o, and knew they would continue to attack down that flank when the game restarted.
As revealed by colleague Roy Masters the day after the 18-6 win at Suncorp Stadium, Lomax approached Laurie Daley during the interval and volunteered to switch from the right side of the field to defend on the left while To’o was in the bin.
Lomax was confident the NSW right edge would cope, because Nathan Cleary, Liam Martin and Stephen Crichton “had defended together forever” in clubland, and suggested he would be of better use switching over and helping out Latrell Mitchell try and stop Coates.
The Maroons scored a try while To’o was in the bin, but it came from a Mitchell error rather than any luck attacking with the extra player.
Zac Lomax with Stephen Crichton and Brian To’o.Credit: Sam Mooy
The foresight and maturity shown by Lomax was praised by Daley – and yet another example of how quickly the Parramatta recruit has adjusted to life in the representative arena within 12 months.
As he joined his Blues teammates in camp in the Blue Mountains on Tuesday, Lomax opened up on the Origin I half-time conversations with the coaches.
“I knew Queensland were going to go straight to that side and use Xavier Coates as their kick target,” he said. “[Maroons forward] Jeremiah Nanai was also on their right, so that’s where all their kicks were going. Without a winger, it wasn’t ideal for us.
“As someone who watches a lot of footy, you know everyone’s strengths. We knew that’s where their threat was, and we had nobody [defending] for us.”
Zac Lomax scored two tries and helped NSW to a crucial victory.Credit: Getty Images
Daley was full of admiration for Lomax and hailed the winger for putting the team first. “I was speaking to the left edge about what we were going to do,” Daley said. “I got up and walked across the room, then [assistant coach] Dean [Young] said to me, ‘Zac wants to go to the other side’, and ‘we should do that’. That’s how it unfolded. It was his initiative rather than the coaches. He thought about it.
“The other thing I loved is when Brian came back on the field, Zac sprinted across to his wing. That’s what you want. He never jogged across the field. He went hard.”
Lomax and To’o went into the match on the back of just one NRL game back after foot and hamstring injuries respectively. Daley initially feared playing two wingers who were so underdone physically would be a risk.
Lomax and To’o have had nearly 90 hit-ups between them in two games since the Brisbane triumph, and are tipped to be even harder to stop at Optus Stadium a week on Wednesday.
“I pride myself on doing what’s required for the team – that’s me carrying the ball the best I can out of yardage,” Lomax said. “Me and Bizza go one-two, and we’re almost a team inside a team.
“We’re not the ones in there tackling, so our job is at the back of the field – we’re not making the heavy collisions defensively, so with the ball in hand, that’s when we try to repay our teammates the best we can.”
Meanwhile, Lomax said he had watched the replay of Dylan Brown running into the back of referee Gerard Sutton during Monday’s match against Canterbury, and believed his Eels teammate was unfortunate to be hit with a contrary conduct charge which will see him miss the next game.
Brown’s charge was increased to a grade two because of how hard he ran into the back of Sutton.
“I watched that replay, and I don’t know how you can run around [the ref],” Lomax said. “I know when I’m going for the ball, my eyes are always on the footy. It’s a tough one.”
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.
