NRLW Round 4: Roosters v Eels, Dragons v Knights, match reports and scores
The NRLW action is heating up ahead of the finals with the Dragons obliterating a record and the Roosters keeping their hopes alive. The LIKES and DISLIKES from Round 4.
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After another fascinating weekend, which produced record-breaking scorelines and possibly te biggest upset in NRLW history, Chris Honnery looks back on the good and the bad from Round 4.
LIKES
THRILLING WEEKEND
The Titans thrilling win over the Broncos. A new rivalry has begun in the NRLW with the two Queensland clubs producing an incredibly entertaining derby match. The Gold Coast club became just the second team to beat the three-time premiers the Broncos and no doubt the Brisbane club will be looking to renew their dominance in bigger and better fashion following that loss. On the topic of thrillers, Zehara Tamara’s field goal to keep the Roosters season alive was also a highlight of the round.
RAMPAGING RED V
The Dragons ran riot over the Knights in the final game of the round to set up an enticing final round next weekend. St George Illawarra’s 36-point win over Newcastle was the highest points scored by an NRLW team and takes them to top of the ladder, leapfrogging the Broncos. The Dragons play the Roosters, the Broncos host the Eels and both sides will be playing for the win to secure the NRLW minor premiership.
EXPANSION PLANS
The NRL’s call earlier in the week to reveal major expansion plans in the next two years. The current six-team competition will grow to 10 by 2024 which means more NRLW games each weekend and more rounds per season. It will also mean new rivalries emerge, like a possible Roosters v Rabbitohs clash or a Melbourne v Manly showdown.
COVID COMEBACK
Brydie Parker’s performance after succumbing to Covid last week. The 22-year-old Roosters winger tested positive to Covid last Sunday and was cleared to play just seven days later when her isolation period ended and went on to notch up 100 running metres, three tackle breaks and a crucial try.
DISLIKES
NERVOUS CHOOKS
The loss of Jessica Sergis for the Roosters. The star outside back was a late withdrawal from their round 4 clash against the Eels after she was unable to overcome an ankle injury from last week. Roosters fans would not have liked the vision of the 24-year-old in a moon boot on Sunday afternoon with fears she may have suffered a syndesmosis injury, which could see up to four weeks on the sideline. With Isabelle Kelly on report for a crusher tackle, the Roosters could be without their two star players for the final regular season game of the completion.
DRAGONS SHATTER RECORD, ROOSTERS FACE TWO HUGE LOSSES
By David Gavin
Dual International and birthday girl Emma Tonegato starred for St George Illawarra in a record NRLW win in Newcastle on Sunday, welcoming back NSW Origin second rower Kezie Apps in perfect fashion.
Prior to Sunday, 26 points was the biggest winning margin in the NRLW’s short four-year history. That was shattered by the Dragons who ran away with a 40-4 win over the bottom-placed Knights, scoring nine tries to one.
The 36-point win over their hosts at McDonald Jones Stadium also surpassed three-time champions the Brisbane Broncos at the top of the table on for-and-against.
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Returning from a broken hand in round one, Apps told Nine that despite the ice on her wrist at full time, she was “all good”.
“We’ve got a special group, you can see that by the way we’re playing and we’re continuing to build,” Apps said. She joined winger Madison Bartlett and Kody House back in the side for the record win.
On her 27th birthday, Tonegato continued the elite performances from NRLW fullbacks this season, as one of four players to cross the stripe twice in notching 194 run metres.
The Rugby Sevens Gold Medallist in Rio 2016, is one of four fullbacks in the top 10 for post-contact metres this season, along with several prop forwards, with another 39 on Sunday against Newcastle.
Other Dragons to cross the line twice were Bartlett, fellow winger Teagan Berry and centre Jaime Chapman.
TONEGATO BURNS KNIGHTS ON BIRTHDAY
Olympic gold medallist Tonegato OAM celebrated in style with a season’s best try in the second half, burning Newcastle’s defence.
Tonegato produced a Billy Slater-like play off the scrum, breaking two tackles with a switch of direction thrown in for good measure, to sprint 30-plus metres and score under the posts.
“She’s got pace to burn and incredible footwork, and she’s strong,” Tarsha Gale said on Fox League.
“She’s come out of a program of being a full-time athlete and that’s the sort of thing she can do at the back end of a game.”
Tonegato followed that with a 25-metre pass to put Berry over in the corner, for her second, just two minutes later.
“(She’s) one of the greats of Australia’s women’s sport,” Gale said.
PEARSON LEAVES FIELD
In-form halfback Rachael Pearson left the field early in the second half, with a reported stiff back.
Dragons’ coach Jamie Soward confirmed post-match that it was a plan to bring Pearson from the field sometime during the match.
“I just felt like there’s bigger games ahead for Rach,” Soward said post-match.
“I’m probably a little bit protective of my halfback, at the moment. She’s a country girl (from Hay), she’s tough.
“(I just) thought get her off now and put her on ice, (as I did with Kezie and Elsie Albert).”
KNIGHTS STILL LEARNING
In the club’s first NRLW season, the Newcastle Knights are yet to register a win from four rounds with just one remaining, but their coach says that after a tough four weeks, there is one thing his players can take heart from.
“All of them can genuinely walk away, that most of them can understand that they can play at an NRLW level,” Casey Bromilow said after the loss.
“(For many) it’s their first season in the NRLW, there’s a couple of girls who have literally played five games of rugby league in their entire careers, but when they get it right they don’t look out of place … and they could turn into 10-year NRLW players.”
FULL-TIME THE ANSWER TO TAKE NEXT STRIDE
Kezie Apps says that the NRLW is the most open it has ever been and the answer to taking that next step is porfessionalisation, which the NRL announced during the week they are working towards.
As of later this year, NRLW will introduce a salary cap system, allowing two marquee players to be employed full-time and expansion of the competion from 2023.
“I feel like each week, each team, the more that we get together and the more that we’re able to train together everyone’s getting better,” the 31-year-old said.
“If the women’s game was more full-time, (and) we’re able to do this more regularly, the skill level is going to go even more through the roof. It’s pretty skilful now (and) it’s exciting where it’s going.
Five out of the six sides are still in the race for a top four finals’ spot. The Dragons play the Roosters next Saturday to complete the regular season and try seal top spot.
ROOSTERS FACE LOSING TWO STARS
Sydney Roosters’ NRLW finals aspirations are alive after a late field goal despite injury concerns and a possible suspension to their star centre.
Five-eighth Zahara Temara slotted a field goal with less than two minutes remaining at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday to break the 18-18 deadlock with Parramatta, keeping touch with the top four.
“It did feel good off the boot … I was just hoping and praying,” Temara told Channel Nine post-match.
“Lot of soul searching after (losing those) first two games, but we just have a lot of belief,” she said after the second consecutive win for the Roosters.
The win made all the more significant with the loss of former NRLW Dally M Player of the Year Jess Sergis, who was ruled out in the final 24 hours before Sunday’s match with an ankle injury.
There are also concerns around the availability of centre Isabelle Kelly for next week’s crucial clash against St George Illawarra after the star centre was put on report.
A six-point turnaround, in the space of a minute, looked to have turned the match with Tiana Penitani running onto a Maddie Studdon pass to give the Eels’ the lead after Kelly’s 70-metre effort from a loose ball was ruled no try.
Incredibly, it was the third time the centre had been denied after crossing the line in Newcastle. Kelly’s stand-out 200 running metres was crucial to the win.
And against a number of former Roosters including the dynamic Botille Vette-Welsh, Parramatta captain Simaima Taufa and Kennedy Cherrington, the Eels were not going to give up without a fight with a top four spot and finals qualification at stake, in their debut NRLW season.
But like her front row partner Mya Hill-Moana earlier in the contest, Sarah Togatuki muscled her way over the line to tie it up. Both exceeded 100 metres taking the ball forward.
After her 272 running metres last week Vette-Welsh neared 150 for the Eels.
KELLY ON REPORT
Kelly may find herself in a little bit of trouble with the judiciary, put on report for a crusher tackle.
Kelly was involved in an awkward tackle applying pressure to the neck of Abbi Church early in the second half.
“Her head was in a vulnerable position, the tackle had been completed and Abbi Church was getting up to play the ball,” Fox League’s Brenton Speed remarked in the call.
“Not looking good for Izzy Kelly,” commentator Tarsha Gale agreed.
ROOSTERS BLOW ON EVE
The Roosters overcame the loss of star centre Jess Sergis who succumbed to an ankle injury sustained during last week’s win over Newcastle.
Sergis was seen wearing a moonboot on her right foot anxiously watching on from the sideline and it did not stop her celebrating with her teammates on-field after the full-time siren.
Roosters coach John Strange revealed he wasn’t sure about whether Sergies would recover in time for next week. “I need her to be training 100%,” Strange said. “I’m not going to play her unless she’s training at 100%.”
Versatile outside back Brydie Parker made an immediate impact filling in at centre scoring after three minutes, benefitting from a favourable bounce from a kick.
POOR START COSTS EELS
Last time Parramatta visited Newcastle, a Maddie Studdon field goal saw the Eels clinch a one-point win over the Knights, but it was the reverse result on return to the Hunter in round four.
“To be on the other side of it, it’s tough, it’s disappointing,” said coach Dean Widders. “But we just didn’t execute at all at the end. We probably didn’t get a chance nor did we deserve it either.
“We started really poorly in the first half and it took it’s toll on us.
“Our decision-making at times can make the game really hard for us and that happened too many times today.”
Temara’s field goal was just the second in NRLW history.
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