‘Where was Latrell?’: Mitchell goes missing but Braith says he’s improving as a fullback

All eyes were on Latrell Mitchell in Friday night’s epic grudge match with the Roosters after he underwhelmed in his first two performances in the South Sydney No.1 jersey.

The 22-year-old’s positional switch was heavily criticised after he was benched in Rounds 1 and 2 for lack of fitness.

Mitchell was handed the perfect opportunity to hit back at criticism — a clash with his old team and the game’s best fullback, James Tedesco.

Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 NRL Telstra Premiership. Watch every game Live & On-Demand with no-ad breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

While he looked more dangerous than when he last took the field, Mitchell had a rollercoaster night. He came up with some solid tackles as well as a try-assist, but was caught out of position twice.

Mitchell’s night started with a hiccup when he carelessly knocked on but he quickly made up for it with two try-saving tackles.

MORE NRL NEWS

GREAT GAME: World reacts to NRL return as Eels smash the Broncos

WELCOME TO THE NEW NRL: Controversial rule make ‘far better product’

‘LOVE IT’: NRL fans give a big thumbs up to ‘fake crowd’ noise

But after two good defensive reads, Mitchell was then no where to be seen at the back as the Roosters’ new left centre Josh Morris put in a kick to send young gun Kyle Flanagan over under the posts.

He bounced back with a nifty try-assist to send Cameron Murray over for a four-pointer, however his highlights stopped there.

Mitchell was once again caught out of position late in the second half as Roosters hooker Jake Friend breezed over the line.

Mitchell had shot out of the defensive line to hit former teammate Luke Keary, and was nowhere to be seen when Friend scored.

His absence had Fox League expert Braith Anasta asking “where was Latrell?”

“He’s been caught out of position a couple of times in this second half,” Anasta said.

“He’s had a much better game, I think than in his previous two in the fullback position.

“Definitely an improvement but still a lot to work on.

“You don’t often see those tries because usually the fullback is there, so it was a bit of surprise not to see him in the frame at all.”

Greg Alexander was glad to see more involvement from Mitchell but believes he still has work to do to be a superstar fullback.

“I thought it was better than what we saw in the opening two rounds,” he said.

“There’s still a hell of a long way to go to get to what we know Latrell can do.

“(The knock-on) was a bad error but if you can forgive that I thought his couple of tackles in goal, held some players up, a great stop on Luke Keary and played a part in the tackle on James Tedesco so he would have loved that.

“But the little double pump gave Cameron Murray just enough space to get through the Flanagan tackle.

“So while there’s a long way to go, that was better than what we’d seen in the opening two rounds.”

MORE NRL NEWS

TEDESCO: How Latrell broke news of his Roosters exit

CAM SMITH PLAYS HIS 63RD SEASON: Fletch and Hindy time travel to 2060

UNTESTED COMBOS, PROVEN PLAYMAKERS: NRL’s halves pairings ranked

Retired Rabbitohs legend Sam Burgess agreed with Alexander.

“I think since the tackle on Tedesco where he rag-dolled him he found a reason to get into the game with a bit of conviction, bit of passion and when he double-pumped to put Cameron over the line... I think we need to see more of that from him, but it’s certainly more than what we saw in the first two rounds.”