VB Hard Earned Team of the Week: Under-rated stars stand out as Haas takes lead

Isaah Yeo, Victor Radley and Scott Drinkwater.

There's not much to compare them as players but the trio produced typical underrated performances for their sides to make the VB Hard Earned Team of the Week for round two.

The VB Hard Earned award is back for 2020, highlighting and celebrating the true toilers of the game who sometimes don't get the plaudits.

Each match, players receive a VB Hard Earned index score, calculated by doubling their total runs and adding a point for every tackle, offload, decoy, support, charge down and tackle break.

Negative plays lower the index score. One point is taken off per missed tackle, while errors and penalties cost four points. Being sin-binned results in eight points being subtracted.

Yeo, who is relishing the early season switch to the middle of the paddock, produced another strong performance against the Dragons in round two with 13 carries for 116 metres while topping the tackle count with 42.

He remains just behind Panthers teammate and reigning champion James Fisher-Harris in seventh place on the overall leader board after an index score of 82 on the weekend.

Gun players in the competition don't usually put in two poor performances in a row and it's safe to say Roosters forward Victor Radley was back with a bang against Manly after a difficult night at Penrith a week earlier.

Radley produced a stirring 69-minute effort that included 24 runs for 201 metres, a line break and 40 tackles to finish with an index score of 100.

Finishing amongst the most impressive performers for the week was Cowboys five-eighth Scott Drinkwater, who scored a try, produced two offloads and kicked 101 metres in a dominant effort alongside halves partner Michael Morgan.

In the overall leaderboard update, Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga retained his spot in the Team of the Week with another strong performance but the forwards have officially taken over the top 10 with Payne Haas, Alex Twal and Jake Trbojevic leading the way.

Haas, who didn't quite live up to the statistical expectations we're used to seeing in round two against South Sydney, has a one point lead over Twal.