Penrith punish rusty Roosters
3 hours ago | Aidan Edgecomb
Broncos 67 Storm 62
If this match was a preview of the quality and simplicity that top level rugby league offers at finals time, fans at the grounds and those in front of screens, large and small, are set for some great matches as September marches on.
Excellent defence by both teams meant long distance tries were few and far between, although Matt Duffie almost caught an intercept that would have left him with 80 metres to run and all defenders needing to turn and chase.
Despite the low scores the Storm never really looked like losing. A Brisbane penalty was the first scoring play and it wasn't until Kurt Mann crossed at the 20th minute that either line was broken. Brisbane kicked another penalty to even the score at 4-4 with five minutes to half time. Will Chambers gave his team the lead with a straight forward try 90 seconds from the break. With no conversions the half time score was Melbourne 8-Brisbane 4.
Kurt Mann grabbed his second try when he pounced on a miss-handled bomb in the Broncos in-goal. Converted by Cameron Smith, the Storm led 14-4. Jack Reed scored for Brisbane 10 minutes later to give their fans a lift and as the conversion was missed the Storm still had a 6 point gap. The Professor Cooper Cronk dropped a field goal at the 71st minute giving his team a seven point lead and that's the way it stayed. Final Score Melbourne 15 - Brisbane 8.
Roosters 32 Rabbitohs 69
The Roosters blew the Rabbitohs off the park at the Allianz Stadium on Friday night. The Minor Premiers (3rd year running) were awesome against a Souths team missing Isaac Luke, Greg Inglis and John Sutton. With tries to Michael Jennings (8th min) and Blake Ferguson(11th min) the Roosters stamped their authority on the match. James Maloney converted both for a 12-0 lead. Boyd Cordner followed up with a try four minutes later and Jake Friend crossed at the 21st minute to extend the lead to 24-0. The scorer and opposition had a 15 minute break until Aiden Guerra crossed 3 minutes from half time and his team went to the sheds at 30-0.
The second half was a defensive drill for the Roosters and Coach Trent Robinson was delighted that his team kept the 2014 premiers scoreless. Souths who had started the season with 30 point win over the Broncos will limp into the finals with a 30 point loss to the Roosters - having leaked 109 points and missed 87 tackles in their last 3 matches. Final Score Sydney 30 - South Sydney 0.
Panthers 113 Knights 120
Penrith won the match that decided the wooden spoon and are no doubt happy that they did. Newcastle are the official soup stirrers for 2015 BUT for the record, no team has registered so many points on the table and still taken home the wooden spoon.
Stand-in Newcastle Coach Danny Buderus will no doubt consider his career options as he hands over to Nathan Brown at his beloved Knights because he must be the only person that league fans have been able to observe close up, as they age considerably, while doing a job for just six weeks.
The match at Pepper Stadium was basically one way traffic as Penrith ran in five tries to two. But for the first 45 minutes the teams had an arm wrestle, with Newcastle seemingly coming out on-top. The score had been 8-0 to the Panthers but the Knights scored their two tries (28th and 37th min) and took a 12-8 score to half time.
Penrith Coach Ivan Cleary must have offered sage advice because his team were completely dominant in the 2nd forty minutes. With 2nd and 3rd tries from Will Smith (4th and 53rd min), Penrith scooted away to an 8 point lead, 20-12 and never looked back. Josh Mansour (71st min) and then Tyrone Peachey (78th min) iced the cake for the home team finishing off a season, they will not want to remember.
However some clouds have silver linings and the contribution by Will Smith in the last eight weeks as fullback for the Panthers might be career changing. He ran the ball for 1113 metres, scored 4 tries, made 16 tackles and even kicked two goals. Matt Moylan, the first pick fullback was injured and never played after Round 12. The next five matches Dallin Watene-Zelezniak was used but he was injured in Round 18 and Coach Cleary needed to find a replacement, that's when Will Smith got his chance. Whatever his contract status at the Panthers, this 23 year old will be a first grade fullback at an NRL club, sooner rather than later. Final Score Penrith 30 Newcastle 12.
Dragons 90 Tigers 127
I have a very well informed Rugby League tragic who has told me since Round 12 (when St George led the NRL with 8 wins), that they were imposters and that they would (on that basis) miss the finals. I thought he was wrong BUT with just 4 wins in their last 13 matches, the Dragons almost proved him right. In the last four matches they were flogged by Brisbane, victorious over an injury riven Penrith, defeated by an enthusiastic Newcastle and this week after leading 30-8 (at the 61st minute) they needed a penalty in extra time to win 32-30.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor was visibly distressed as his team gave up try after try. Tigers, Pat Richards and Aaron Woods scored at the 64th and 67th minutes and with one conversion, the score was 30-18. Panic seemed to set in when James Tedesco scored at the 77th minute and during the next 6 tackles the Tigers ran the Dragons ragged but failed to score when Keith Galloway passed the ball to an opponent. The sigh of relief from the Dragons coach was heard all over Sydney but in attempting to get a match sealing try substitute 5/8th Drew Hutchison threw a pass that was intercepted by David Nofoaluma who scored under the posts bringing up a 30 - 30 score-line. The Penalty Goal was a sad way for Wests to lose their last match in 2015. Final Score St George 32 - Wests Tigers 30.
Cowboys 71 Titans 143
With nothing to play for the Gold Coast Titans went to Townville on Saturday and just to prove they were up for the fight scored twice in the first 11 minutes. Kalifa Faifai Loa scored in the 4th minute and Josh Hoffman, crossed seven minutes later. The score was Cowboys 0-Titans 12 and the home fans were mute.
Cowboys, Queensland and Australian champion Jonathan Thurston, faced yet another match where his team has given up a start of 12 points or more but like those other matches they would swamp their opposition with wonderful attacking football.
Nine tries between the 17th and 80th minutes gave home fans an attacking display they will not forget in a hurry. Encouraged and led by Thurston, Cowboys backs (Thompson, Linnetand Winterstein) scored tries to give their team a 16-12 lead at half time but it was an explosive 2nd half that rewarded rugby league lovers, at home and at the ground.
Lachlan Coote scored at the 43rd minute to give his team an eight point lead but the period between the 62nd and 77th minute saw the Cowboys score 5 tries. With a touchdown every 3 minutes they hardly had time to attempt the conversion and get started again before another try was scored.
The try to big forward James Tamou was emblematic as he (a) avoided the nudie run awarded to players who don't score a try in the season and (b) demonstrated the intensity he and his fellow forwards will take into the finals. Despite some indifferent performances over the last 6 weeks, the Cowboys will be very hard to stop - even if representative half-back Michael Morgan remains injured. Final Score Cowboys 42 - Titans 12.
Eels 121 Raiders 89
Parramatta and Canberra had little to play for except pride. However, like all professional sports teams they also owed their supporters, coach and administration an effort commensurate with their pay packets. The following quote from Brad Arthur's post match press conference sums up the Eels match and season.
"Too many lost opportunities and every single game this year we've been in and the boys have tried really hard and played with some pride and passion and a bit of spirit in their performances, but it's not good enough anymore. We need to learn how to win games of footy, it's just not good enough anymore. That game there was ours, we were the better team, we need to win that (sort of) game of football."
Arthur was reflecting on match that was lost because of poor concentration at critical moments. When Parramatta kicked a penalty goal at 78 mins and 35 seconds to lead 24 - 18 , no one at ‘Pirtek' Stadium expected to go home unhappy but to the surprise (and disgust) of fans and Coach alike, the Eels somehow allowed the 12 man Raiders outfit to work their way downfield and let winger Edrick Lee score in the corner. The difficult conversion was kicked by Jarrod Croker and then four minutes into extra time (with the Raiders on last tackle, 10 metres out) the Parramatta players (instead of watching the ball) anticipated a pass from the dummy half to the goal kicker, so they charged down the field, allowing English Import, hooker Josh Hodgson, to keep the ball and stroll 10 metres to score untouched.
There was some good news as Eels winger Semi Radradra broke the club record for tries in a season, held by Steve Ella. His 24th try left him leading the NRL list as well, with Bulldog winger Curtis Rona to play later in the day. (Update - Radradra is also NRL top try scorer.)
Meanwhile the other dressing room was all smiles and thoughts about what might have been. The Raiders had finished just 2 wins out of the finals but lost 5 matches by less than 2 points or less.
Coach Stuart said; "That character we displayed there in the last eight minutes of that game with 12 men, is through probably those hardships of this year," he said.
"You build character through adversity and you either come out without it or you come out the other end with a good culture and that's what we're starting to build here through tough times that we've had to face this year." Final Score Canberra 28 - Parramatta 24
Sharks 90 Sea Eagles 99
Over at Shark Park, the home team had everything to play for. A top four position beckoned along with a 2nd chance, should they stumble in the play-offs. Visitors, Manly-Warringah, had given up on making the finals, after St George had won on Saturday afternoon but like all good teams, hurting an opponent's chances matters just as much as enhancing their own.
The match was always going to be tight, because that is the way that the Sharks play. Cronulla Second Rower, Wade Graham scored at the 22nd minute and the conversion added to an early penalty gave the home team an 8 - 0 lead. Five minutes later Manly hit back with a try to Jesse Sene-Lefao and the conversion, along with a Penalty to Kieran Foran made the score 8 - 8 approaching half time. Kieran Foran yet another penalty as the half time bell sounded.
Cronulla took a 2 point lead when centre Gerard Beale scored at the 57th minute and the 12 - 10 score looked like being the final score as Manly, tired from making over 300 tackles were unable to crack the Cronulla defence. As with many close matches an intercept would decide the outcome.
Justin Horo, took an errant pass from the usually direct Michael Ennis and Tom Trbojevic scored t take his team to a 14 - 12 lead. Despite numerous opportunities the Sharks just could not break the Sea Eagle line. With 60% of the ball this failure to score does not bode well for the knockout final the Sharks face next week , although they did have five potential tries denied by the video referee or desperate defence by the Sea Eagles. They would argue that , today, the luck was not on their side. Final Score Manly-Warringah 14 - Cronulla-Sutherland 12.
Bulldogs 59 Warriors 144
As a team that was expected to win well the Bulldogs were awful today and as a team expected to fold without a fight, the Warriors were terrific. Viewing the match after I'd known the result wasn't easy to do, as it made me more critical of the home teams efforts. Clearly they had the capacity to move the ball from one end to the other with ease, but they only turned that capacity on, now and then. Importantly, their loss of regular goal kicker Trent Hodgkinson was clearly evident as the first two conversion attempts were missed, both from left side corner. Replacement Prop forward Tim Browne kicked three conversions but it seems the Bulldogs will struggle if he's off the field.
The Warriors scored first (5th min) and the Bulldogs hit back at the 13th and 29th minutes, but the Bulldog lead at 8 - 6 meant the match was very much in the balance at half time. When Solomone Kata scored (44th min) after 6 players handled the home ground fans went decidedly quiet. Ten minutes later Chase Stanley put the Dogs back in front and with Tim Browne's conversion the score was 14 - 10. When Damien Cook crossed and Browne converted again the Dogs had a 10 point lead and Bulldog coach Des Hasler was breathing a little easier. But his team, for the third time in the match went to sleep because the Warriors scored twice in 5 minutes (65th and 80th minute) with young wizard Tuimoala Lolohea stepping past 5 players to score the first and scorching through a gap to grab the second. At 22 - 20 the Warriors had the Bulldogs on the rack. Bulldog Captain James Graham was sent back onto the field and he scored the deciding try at the 77th minute. The fans all cheered but the players knew this match provided none of the momentum needed heading into a sudden death final. Final Score Bulldogs 26 - Warriors 22