2025 Langer Trophy live stream: Palm Beach Currumbin SHS v Marsden SHS, Round 6

Palm Beach Currumbin were stunned by Marsden State High in Langer Trophy action on Wednesday, with the visitors producing one of the performances of the season. Watch the REPLAYS here.

Playing for their school’s Langer Trophy future, proud Marsden State High School dragged itself out of the relegation redzone with an upset victory over reigning national champions Palm Beach Currumbin.

A traditional Queensland schoolboys powerhouse nestled in rugby league’s fertile heartland of Logan, it was unthinkable that Marsden had found itself six weeks into the season with one win to its name.

With the threat of a 2026 requalification battle hanging over their heads, Marsden’s flagship team marched onto Tugun Rugby League Club on the Gold Coast and stunned Palm Beach 10-6 in a defensive boilover that rates as the finest performance of the school’s season.

Marsden’s desperate defence was proof the fabric of Queensland’s elite Langer Trophy competition is richer with the Makos present.

With a breathless final 10 minutes of defence Marsden held out Palm Beach numerous times, forcing the Reds to attack to a standstill.

With two minutes to go Palm Beach recovered a grubber kick 10m from the line and launched an all-out blitz to steal the result.

Marsden met every challenge with full-bodied tackling and won the match when Palm Beach hurled a pass into touch, searching for a sliver of space on the wing that simply did not exist.

Palm Beach won the second half 6-2 but could not find their elusive matchwinner despite the valiant efforts of straight-running stick-figure halfback Taj Lateo, whose Phar Lap heart must account for half his body weight.

Starved of possession for the entire first half, Marsden crossed twice against the run of play to secure an 8-0 lead at the break.

Having not touched the ball for more than a few carries in the first 10 minutes of the match, Marsden five-eighth Caleb Cresswell threw off his defender and bolted for the tryline.

The ball was dislodged in a desperate horse-collar trysaver from Palm Beach backrower Cruz Dangerfield but bounced kindly for centre Antonio Okusitino to collect and plant over the stripe.

Marsden’s desperate defence on the goal line continued to frustrate their hosts, who could not land a knockout punch despite the best efforts of straight-running halfback Taj Lateo.

Marsden did not flinch when winger Mairangiatea Walker’s 90m runaway try was wiped off the board in what might have been a second try against the run of play.

Undeterred, Walker instead jarred the ball loose with a thumping trysaving tackle on the ensuing set.

Underrated fullback Adaquix Luke, the son of veteran Kiwis hooker Isaac Luke, bewitched defenders on the stroke of halftime to dive over in the corner and extend the lead past a converted try.

That lead was enough – and may have saved this proud rugby league nursery from the ignominy of fighting to re-qualify for this competition next season.

LANGER TROPHY: Palm Beach Currumbin SHS 6 (Josiah Fa’aoso try; Taj Lateo goal) def. by Marsden 10 (Antonio Okusitino, Adaquix Luke tries; Caleb Cresswell goal)

Palm Beach Currumbin v Marsden SHS (2025 Langer Trophy)

Palm Beach Currumbin SHS v Marsden SHS (2025 QLD NRL Schoolgirls Cup)

Marsden State High School is hurtling towards a Queensland state final showdown with Keebra Park after dismantling hopefuls Palm Beach Currumbin nine tries to one at Tugun.

The Makos’ tub-thumping forward pack delivered the visitors to victory 40-4 and will leave their hosts to nurse a host of bruises at school for the rest of this week.

PBC did well to contain Marsden for the opening 10 minutes before powerfully-built five-eighth Evelyn Roberts blasted over the tryline on the right edge to breach the floodgates.

Viewers of the KommunityTV livestream would have felt the force of every tackle through their screens.

Backrow enforcers Sienna Ibrahim, Rosa-Millan Lefono and RJ Henry-Purcell could well be the hardest hitting trio in the nation, with centre Namoe Gesa an honourable mention among that crew.

In concert with Queensland under-16 prop Carayannidis Ta’Akimoeaka-Pulu and her front-row rotation mates Mya Tronc, Biarnka Joyce and Elisa Asomua, Marsden’s 2025 forward pack may just rumble the school into a state decider.

Surpass Keebra Park – Queensland’s unbeaten favourites and 20-16 victors over Marsden in their past meeting – and a national final is within reach.

Playing behind a sledgehammer pack performance even Marsden’s slighter players could make their sting felt.

Left edge tandem Nikeisha Ngaru and Leilani Taofinuu showed off their speed and swerve to cross for first half tries.

Even the ball bounced Marsden’s way, with a speculator grubber from 20m out wobbled neatly into the arms of Ibrahim.

PBC did fight its way onto the scoreboard when fullback Isabella Brown wove through defenders to dot down from close range early in the second half.

That four-point cut into Marsden’s lead was just as quickly erased when Ibrahim waltzed in untouched for her second.

Centres Gesa and Taofinuu both crossed in the dying stages before Ata’Akimoeaka-Pulu crossed for one of the great front rower tries of the season.

Marsden’s goalkicking could use some additional practice because those points left off the scoreboard (14, today) may have haunted the school on a different day.

NRL SCHOOLGIRLS CUP: Palm Beach Currumbin SHS 4 (Isabella Brown try) def. by Marsden SHS 38 (Evelyn Roberts, Nikeisha Ngaru, Leilani Taofinuu (2), Sienna Ibrahim (2), Namoe Gesa (2), Carayannidis Ata’Akimoeaka-Pulu tries; Enah Desic (2) goals)

Palm Beach Currumbin v Marsden SHS (Walters Cup)

Marsden State High School flushed its chances of victory in the Walters Cup down the drain during a frustrating second half to lose 20-6 against Palm Beach Currumbin on the Gold Coast.

Three times Marsden was unable to cross its 30m line without coughing up possession or giving away a penalty.

The Logan school was punished by their hosts who scored three tries from close range after halftime.

Penalties for backchatting, failure to kick the ball out when awarded a penalty and simple drops were among the coach-killing errors that gift-wrapped the game for Palm Beach Currumbin at Tugun Rugby League Club on Thursday.

Good football teams do not waste those opportunities and PBC missed only one chance to score in sets directly following Marsden brain-fades.

Palm Beach had led 6-0 at halftime and the match could have gone either way at that point.

The hosts’ right edge was efficient in the latter period, sweeping to the extreme of the pitch with speed and footwork to score two simple catch-and-score tries on the right wing.

A hat-trick try was knocked on in the act of scoring, the only blemish on an effective day at the office for the right edge unit.

PBC had opened the scoring in the first half with a powerful forwards try, dragging multiple defenders over the tryline.

When penalties invited Marsden up the field for consolation points later in the half the school could only score once, highlighting the gulf in redzone efficiency between the teams.

WALTERS CUP: Palm Beach Currumbin SHS 20 (#11, #5 (2), #8 tries; #3 (2) goals) def. Marsden 6 (#9 try, #9 goal)

PREVIEW

Past Palm Beach Currumbin star and Gold Coast rugby league great Ryan James was a surprise guest at training this week as the Langer Trophy’s most southern school prepares to knock proud Marsden into a shock relegation battle.

The Langer Trophy showdown will be exclusively live streamed on KommunityTV as part of a massive triple header between the two schools which also includes the Walters Cup (Year 10) and Schoolgirls Cup.

Two-time Titans’ Paul Broughton Medal winner James spotted the Reds’ Langer Trophy team training while out for a drive this week and pulled over to make an impromptu appearance at training.

James represented the Australian Schoolboys at Palm Beach Currumbin in 2008, the same year he won the Peter Sterling Medal as the finest schoolboy in the nation.

Coach Tim Maccan said James put an arm around PBC’s emerging front rowers to share his 168 games of NRL experience for a match Maccan described as a “grand final” in intensity.

“Ryan was in and around the area driving past and basically stopped in to join the boys for a lesson,” Maccan said.

“Ryan was pulling aside a couple of front rowers to give them some tips and things like that.

“The kids really love the feedback the NRL and ex-NRL players give them, but more importantly, the guys who come in really engage with the kids as well.

“Hopefully that will be a continuing thing for him to pop in every now and again, which would be great.

Ryan James during his playing days for Palm Beach Currumbin in the national final of the then Arrive Alive Cup in 2008.

“I didn’t even know he was coming. That’s usually the way it works here, guys will just drop in. In the past we’ve had guys currently playing NRL who have driven past and dropped in. Luke Garner (Penrith) has done it a couple of times, Toby Sexton (Bulldogs), players like that.

“It’s really good for the boys and it really shows the great culture at the school that when you leave you want to come back.”

Those lessons in front row play will come in handy for Wednesday’s clash with Marsden and the school’s Australian Schoolboys halfback Hayden Watson.

Denying Watson oxygen by smothering Marsden’s forward pack, led by another Australian Schoolboy in Tupou Francis, will be critical in a desperate fixture for the visitors at Tugun Rugby League Club.

Hayden Watson in action for Queensland during the 2025 ASSRL National Championships. Picture: Courtney Thomson

Marsden sit seventh on the Langer Trophy ladder and a loss this week will leave the school with a win, a draw and four losses from six games heading into the final round.

Only the top six teams in the league are guaranteed places in 2026, leaving Marsden to face the real danger of being forced to requalify for the Langer Trophy in 2026.

“Their season is on the line; they need to win their next two games to make the finals so they’re going to come all guns blazing,” PBC coach Maccan said.

“They’re a very good team who probably haven’t played as well as they’d like to.

“They’ve got some quality players and it’s only a matter of time before they put in a good performance.

“We’ve got to be right up for the challenge.”

A loss will leave the school that produced future Immortal Cameron Smith fighting for its future in Queensland’s elite schoolboy competition.

Originally published as 2025 Langer Trophy live stream: Palm Beach Currumbin SHS v Marsden SHS, Round 6