NRL star David Nofoaluma becomes all-time record holder

Tigers star David Nofoaluma is known as one of the league’s most dependable finishers and now he’s got the stat to back that reputation up.

Nofoaluma is the Tigers’ top tryscorer this season. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

There hasn’t been a whole lot for the Tigers faithful to celebrate in 2021 but reliable finisher David Nofoaluma gave fans of the joint venture reason to smile on Sunday.

With his first-half four-pointer, Nofoaluma surpassed Chris Lawrence and Benji Marshall to become the side’s all-time top tryscorer.

A beautiful ball from Adam Doueihi — the Tigers’ shining light in a dark season — sent Nofoaluma over for his 85th try in orange, black and white.

“What a tryscorer he is for the Wests Tigers,” 2016 Premiership-winner Michael Ennis said in commentary.

“Nofoaluma, he’s over for another try.”

💪 @DNofoaluma becomes the all-time highest try scorer for the @WestsTigers! #NRLBroncosTigers
📝 https://t.co/fXFUEMwFkP
📲 https://t.co/gzVDolKR45
📺 WATCH via @kayosportshttps://t.co/aue9mxJhvLpic.twitter.com/9H3uPFbxIi

— Fox League (@FOXNRL) July 18, 2021

Nofzillaaa! 🐅👏#NRLBroncosTigerspic.twitter.com/dy9rVghQ8v

— NRL (@NRL) July 18, 2021

Michael Maguire was looking for a few good men to turn the Wests Tigers’ season around and he found two standouts to lead the rest to victory. Adam Doueihi and Daine Laurie, take a bow.

With Maguire under enormous pressure to hang onto his position and be given the breathing space to direct a long-term rebuild of the club, a win over the battling Broncos was a non-negotiable mission.

The Tigers would have missed too many tackles, 30 in all, for the coach’s liking but on the back of a Doueihi masterclass, the Tigers showed the fight that Maguire was after to come back from an 18-10 half-time deficit to win 42-24.

Five-eighth Douehi’s incredible five try assists and Laurie’s line breaking ability and link play inspired their teammates to lift.

The Tigers had leaked 144 points in their past three games and after the last thrashing the coach slammed the performance as “garbage” and sent out a search party for “men that are accountable”.

His men answered the call and incredibly the Tigers, on 14 points, are still in the finals hunt.

Post-match, a proud Maguire was asked whether he had found his “men”.

“I did. I was very pleased for the men,” Maguire said.

“Obviously they are players but the men are 30-year-olds and I have 19-year-old’s out there. It doesn’t matter what age you are within this group, you are men to come and take this club forward.

“I was really pleased with how they fought for each other. I’ve said there is a strong bond between the group and you’ve got to have strong bonds amongst your team to be able to fight back like that.”

Wests scored some incredible tries, none moreso than to debutant centre Junior Pauga, which was the clincher.

Luke Brooks put up a towering bomb and Ken Maumalo raced through to catch it on the fly and put Pauga over for a cracker and stretch the lead to 36-24 with 10 minutes remaining.

Prop Stefano Utoikamanu came on for a powerhouse second stint and showed why Brad Fittler had brought him in to Blues camp by barging over late. The Tigers scored 32 points in the second stanza and as the half wore on their defence also picked up.

The Tigers will feature on Fox League in a documentary called ‘Wild Wests: Tales from Tiger Town’ on Monday night.

In it Maguire is quoted as saying: “Where we end up will be determined by how hard we are willing to work for each other every single day.”

There were signs that work is well under way, with plenty more still to be done.

“I was really proud of the players after what we’ve been going through the last month. There have been some challenging times but we have to take belief out of what we did out there and take that forward,” Maguire said.

“ I know that is what the group is capable of. The young men I have got are growing into what they need to do for each other. To see the two debutants (Tukimihia Simpkins and Pauga) come and play the way they did was good to see.”

The Tigers are now one win out of the top eight. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Adam aces it

Doueihi has said plenty of times this year that he wants to play five-eighth. He started the season there and his display against the Broncos proved without doubt he should have stayed there. You have to wonder how the Tigers would have remained in the game without the 22-year-old playmaker. The first five Tigers tries all came on the back of Doueihi try assists, to go with the seven he had in the eight games that he wore the number six from rounds two to nine.

“It was good to see Adam come back in,” Maguire said.

“Moses (Mbye) has done some great things for us in the halves but I made the change and it was good to see the boys jump into that. Adam obviously helped with some plays but that is off the back of the work the boys have been doing.”

Top of the props

If a Kangaroos side was picked today, surely Broncos prop Payne Haas would be named as one of the starting front-rowers. The Blues powerhouse continues to set the benchmark and almost single handedly carries the burden of keeping the Broncos in contention. Three-quarters of the way through the match, Haas was the only forward with more than 100m. He had 141m and 29 tackles at that point. What it shows is how much work the rest of the forwards, on both sides, have to do to improve their games.