David Iopu. He is a young centre from Ipswich who is currently playing for the Ipswich Diggers in het MM competition and has been named at centre for their fifth round clash this coming weekend. So far in the MM competition he has scored the one try against the Sunshine Coast Falcons in Round Three of the competition. During the 2015 season he played for Goodna Black in the Ipswich Junior Rugby League competition and across 11 matches scored two tries and kicked 26 goals for a point’s haul of 60. He also scored 26 points during the 2015 preseason.

Whilst in does not have a great deal of speed off the mark, he does have decent top end speed once he gets moving and can break tackles by running over his direct opposite defender as well as using a very good fend, when he gets to the outside, this prevents defenders from getting he under his ribs and thus he can maintain his running line under defensive pressure. When engaged with the defensive line he also has a reasonable offload and when he breaks through the main defensive line he is also very effective at setting up his outside support, by drawing the fullback. This is a skill that is more difficult that it may seem, as the attacker needs to ensure that he draws the fullback completely before passing. He seems to mainly line up on the left hand side of the field and is also quite good when running out of dummy half. When he moves into dummy half defences should know that he is going to run but regardless he always seems to make ground.

From a goal kicking perspective he has very accurate with good distance as well, I would have anticipated that he would have been the first choice goal kicker for the Ipswich Diggers in the MM competition but that task has gone to Joel Hughes, but at worst he has the opportunity to be a very good back-up goal kicking option.

Defensively the area that he has impressed me the most is his ability to defend against any size opponent, from small quick outside backs to big strong powerful backrowers running wide of the ruck. He seemingly has more strength that his size would indicate, and he uses this strength to move up and hit just under the ribcage, redirecting the momentum of the ball carrier and thus eliminating the attacking threat in the short term. Regardless of where he defends he sets a good base and uses his leg strength to direct his strength through the core of his body into his opponent. Purely from a skill and physical attribute perspective he seems more suited to a sliding defensive methodology rather than an up and in style, but this is more conjecture from me rather than a fact based argument.

As noted he is currently playing for the Ipswich Diggers in the MM competition and will then transition to the U19 Boettcher Realty Colts Cup where he will play for Goodna in that competition and it would not surprise if he also played some first grade games in the Ipswich competition. In terms of his long term position, I would consider that he has an opportunity to stay in the centres in the long term. He is not going to be a centre who will score a lot of tries but he projects as one with a very good defensive game and also one that can run out of dummy half effectively to give his forwards a break.

From a player comparison perspective consider someone along the lines of North Queensland Cowboys centre Kane Linnett as a solid centre who is a very effective defender but not necessarily one who is going to be near the top of any try scoring list. It will be interesting to see if he gets an opportunity at the NYC level as he is not necessarily an attacking threat but he could certainly handle the defensive side of the game at the NYC level.