Has Marshall got one more vintage Benji showing in him?

Amongst the many good performances from the Wests Tigers on Saturday afternoon at the SCG came a vastly improved performance from mercurial five eighth Benji Marshall. Marshall's form has been all too well documented this season with criticism raining down on him from virtually everywhere. So it was especially comforting to have Marshall return to something of his best against the Dragons.

It should be noted that very little of his play on Saturday structurally reflected that of his better games at five eighth though. A lot of his good work came from playing in the centres, where he made 16 runs for 133 metres. A fair few of those runs simply came from dummy half, but on occasion Marshall also caught the defence off guard by coming in field and searching for the ball. The best example of this was his play in the first half which put Braith Anasta over for a try. Here, Marshall came centre field off a quick play the ball and went right through the middle of an unsuspecting defence before linking up with Anasta who finished a great opportunistic try, Marshall utilized his vision very well against the Dragons, especially in the context above, but also won several penalties by observing an off side player and shooting straight for them to good effect.

The burning question now though is whether or not Marshall can replicate the same form on Friday night versus Souths. This game will be much tougher, obviously. For the Tigers to compete though, a more confident Marshall will go a long way. There's no doubt Benji's confidence will be up a little this week, even if he is back in the halves where he's struggled all season. Perhaps he'll be inspired by his 200th first grade game? An achievement that seemed no chance after a horrendous run of shoulder injuries in his early years??

There's no doubt Benji will reflect on it all at some point this week, and he has torn the Bunnies up on his own in the past. Has he got one more stellar game in him still? It may not even be good enough to beat a top team in Souths, though we can all dream and hope..........


 Benji Marshall v Dragons: 16 runs (133m), 1 try assist, 4 tackle breaks, 1 line break, 1 offload