Can you imagine how Zac Lomax would play if he was truly happy?
Because as of right now, wanting out of the only club he’s ever played for, and not in his preferred position for most of it, St George Illawarra’s star back might just have his nose in front for a NSW State of Origin jumper.
On a night when Shane Flanagan’s new era at the Dragons really came of age, Lomax scored a spectacular try and kicked a rare two-point field goal into a howling wind as the Warriors came crashing back to earth at WIN Stadium on Friday night.
Even Michael Maguire, the famously taciturn coach about to take over the Blues, would have sat a little straighter in his chair when, within a minute of the second half, Lomax scorched down on a Ben Hunt bomb to outleap Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and put his name right in the Origin frame.
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“I think he needs to be discussed,” Flanagan said after the Dragons’ 30-12 win. “Let’s be fair dinkum about it.
“He’s just in form. In Origin you need to have players like that. He comes up with big plays in big moments. I think he’s got the temperament to play Origin. It will be a good winger or centre to keep him out.”
On a night in which he celebrated his 100th NRL game, with almost no external fanfare given his recent signing with the Eels, Lomax finally went back to the centres given the missing Jack Bird (concussion).
Earlier this week, he finally confirmed his end-of-season departure to the Eels. What a bargain that might be for Parramatta. But as much as Lomax was a standout, the result also said a lot about the new starch in the Red V.
If the first 20 minutes was anything to go by, then it was shaping as a long night for the Dragons.
Faced with a stiff southerly breeze, so wondrously captured by that famous wind sock on top of the eastern hill, St George Illawarra couldn’t get out of their own territory. How the Warriors led by only six points was one of those rugby league puzzles which may never be solved?
Zac Lomax was been superb for the Dragons.Credit: Getty
But once the Dragons finally found a bit of territory, they pounced. Moses Suli burst through. Mikaele Ravalawa powered his way over in the corner. Ben Hunt, with some of the shortest arms in the NRL, stretched out to plant the ball on the line despite the attention of three Warriors’ attackers.
But it was nothing compared to the two second-half tries, one a spectacular Lomax leap above Marcelo Montoya off a Hunt kick, the other a 90-metre runaway effort from Tyrell Sloan after Shaun Johnson had fumbled on the Dragons’ line.
On Lomax’s try, Warriors coach Andrew Webster said: “We knew he was a threat in the air. All week, we spoke about it.”
That was the beautiful, then there was the bizarre.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, only a couple of months returned to rugby league, might not have brushed up on the rules again, inexplicably touching a Johnson short dropout which was bobbing around like a cork and about to go over the 10-metre line.
It gave the Dragons a rare penalty and the chance to pad their lead to 24-6, a lead they were never going to give up, especially with Lomax in this type of rare form.