I’ve always thought Sam Burgess would be the undisputed best forward I’ve watched. Before any older readers spray me, I’m not that old. Payne Haas is a man playing against boys. There is nothing he doesn’t have in his arsenal as a forward. He has a huge motor and can play huge minutes without breaking a sweat. He can tackle bust and offload at will. Rarely misses a tackle or makes an error, and last night even showed some pace to burst through a hole that would rival an outside back.
His numbers from last night are simply mind-blowing: 210 run metres, 9 tackle busts, 2 line breaks, a try, 5 offloads, 36 tackles (1 miss), and 0 errors. He does things no other front-rower has ever been able to do. Not to mention he’s doing this during Ramadan. Crazy.
One question mark was his ability to do it at the highest level in Origin, and I think in the 2024 Origin series, he for the first time dominated games at the Origin level. Maybe it’s something about having Michael McGuire as coach, but he is sure getting the best version of Payne Haas.
I don’t believe you can win a competition without an elite front row, and with Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan leading the way, they are going to give the Broncos the best possible platform to go deep in September. Exciting times to be a Broncos fan and even more so just an NRL fan because if Haas stays fit, we are going to see a special year from this superhuman front-rower.
