NRL Rewind:- Round 7

By Stephen Gallagher

Eels 22 Sea Eagles 10

A bounding blindside play by Manly that saw them score the first try.

The first half seemed to play out end to end, as both sides threatened to rip the game wide open.

Manly were their own worst enemies at times. Seemed to lack direction which is understandable – but was the major point I noted for their loss.

Three tries in the last twelve minutes saw the Blue and Gold army improve to 5-2 and Jetboot Jennings scored a double in his 200th appearance.

Keiran Foran left a winner, as per usual on Brookvale Oval’s turf….. this time however as a visitor. Starting to make a formidable opponenent this Parramatta side.

Cowboys 44 – Rabbitohs 18

The Cowboys showed from the onset that they were hungry for another win.

Adam Reynolds midweek inclusion was of no real benefit for the Bunnies, as they were woeful.

It was like watching a side play in slowmotion, as the likes of Thurston, O’Neill and Coote ran rings around their lame opponents.

Souths only shots fired came intermittently. Seemingly the style of footy that’s come out of Redfern for the last month.

The Cowboys intense performance was too much for South Sydney, and the points were piled on late.

Dragons 19 Titans 14

Not only did the Red V score a try for the first time in two games, they scored three tries and won!

Now, leading in to this game – I gave them no chance. They’ve been rightfully pumped the last two weeks.

They led from early on and looked to be winners from the kick off. It was good to see Gareth Widdop stand up and deliver, as well as kingpin Josh Dugan.

The Titans looked to press the line quite often, but the last pass was off, or a handling error cost them a try.

The Titans let themselves down, but credit to the Dragons who when under the pump got a win they deserved.

Warriors 24 Bulldogs 20

Gutsy. That’s a word to describe that Warriors win.

They snuck to an early lead, and their repeat decline of penalty goals was clear they meant business. The right edge of Fusitua and Ayshford scored one each, but after Roger Tuivasa-Sheck left with an ominous knee injury – it was all Bulldogs with a 14-8 HT lead.

The Warriors held their composure and scored some great tries, keeping the Bulldogs in their own half for the majority of the match.

It’s not a Warriors game without some manic ending – but they did hold on. A solid upset.

Broncos 53 Knights 0

What is there to say about this game? Really?

The scoreline says it all. The Knights were humiliated and the Broncos had their best game of the season.

The Knights suffered injury blows, but nothing would have stopped that pummelling by the Broncos. Ouch.

Sharks 40 Raiders 16

It’s very rare to see a Canberra Raiders side frustrated and out of sync from early on.

Also, they’re one of those weird teams are suck at home. Which showed again in this match.

Took less than ten minutes for Cronulla to score through form man Ben Barba to dot down, and when Barba scores – the Sharks do not lose.

The Raiders handling was poor, which led to them trying to do much in situations on attack that they needed to act calmly for.

Cronulla improve their impressive seasns start, with a fantastic attacking game and the ability to break out of anywhere. So good to watch.

Storm 19 Tigers 18

Well it took until Golden Point to decide this one, but no matter which way you look at it – the Tigers have lost five in a row.

63 seconds in to the match and debutante Suliasi Vunivalu scored with his second touch, remarkable!

Then a Tigers debutante got over to hit back, Josh Addo-Carr.

The Tigers looked to press hard with an intercept try and forcing the Storm in to making uncharacteristic mistakes.

But the game carried on in a back and forth fashion…. late offside infringement by the Storm meant the Tigers sent it to Golden Point.

The field goal-a-thon was pretty ugly, shoddy, and mucky but Cooper Cronk slotted one with 30 seconds left in the first half of Golden Point and sunk the Tigers with yet another loss. The Storm were lucky. Tigers had their chances.

Panthers 20 Roosters 16.

If it’s a close game, you know it’s involving Penrith.

They got it done in wet weather at Allianz, inflicting more pain on the Roosters rough start.

It was a match that went try for try seemingly, it was never out of reach for either side to win this.

A 14-10 half time score to Penrith was soon 20-10 after a magnificent solo try by Waqa Blake, then arguably the team try of the year which was a series of hot potato by the Roosters made it a four point game.

Penrith had more opportunities to extend the lead, but knock ons and forward passes halted that

They did enough, and the Roosters did not.

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