Check out what happened in round 1 of the National Rugby League Pre-Season Challenge.
Final Scores
BULLDOGS 24 d STORM 12
KNIGHTS 44 d SHARKS 18
ROOSTERS 36 d SEA EAGLES 22
RAIDERS 38 d EELS 16
RABBITOHS 28 d DRAGONS 6
TIGERS 18 d WARRIORS 16
BRONCOS 46 d COWBOYS 20
DOLPHINS 26 d TITANS 14
Related: 2024 NRL Pre-season Fixtures, Results and Squads
Current Ladder
15 Newcastle Knights, Canberra Raiders, Dolphins; 14 Brisbane Broncos, Sydney Roosters, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Wests Tigers; 13 South Sydney Rabbitohs; 1 New Zealand Warriors, Parramatta Eels; 0 Gold Coast Titans, Melbourne Storm, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, St George-Illawarra Dragons, North Queensland Cowboys, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
Review
Embed from Getty ImagesThree teams earned maximum points in Pre-Season Challenge round 1.
Newcastle, Canberra, and The Dolphins all reached 15 points (12 points for the win and three bonus points), with Newcastle on top on for-and-against. The Knights (down 12-0 against Cronulla), Raiders (10-0 against Parramatta), and Dolphins (8-4 against Gold Coast) all erased early deficits before winning comfortably.
Brisbane, the Sydney Roosters, Canterbury-Bankstown, and the Wests Tigers are on 14 points, while South Sydney are on 13 points (Penrith aren’t participating in the Pre-Season Challenge as they’re playing Wigan in the World Club Challenge next Sunday morning Australian time).
The closet game was the Warriors vs Wests Tigers in Christchurch: Wests led 18-6 after 57 minutes (tries to Alex Seyfarth, Aidan Sezer, and Sione Latoa-Vaihu), before tries to Paul Roache and Setu Tu got the Warriors within two points with 15 minutes left. They were a man down for 60 minutes after Zyon Maiu’u was sent off (direct contact to the head with force).
The Roosters led Manly 24-22 at Gosford with 10 minutes left before Connor Watson and Fetalaiga Pauga scored two tries in five minutes to seal the win. The win was soured when Dominic Young was injured in a tackle from Manly’s Toafofoa Sipley. Thankfully, Young has avoided a serious injury, but could he be in doubt for the Roosters’ Vegas trip?
Souths retained the Charity Shield with a 28-6 win over St George Illawarra. With the scores tied 6-6 at half-time, Braidon Burns scored two second half tries as Souths put the game away. It’s Souths’ 19th Charity Shield win, with St George Illawarra/St George Dragons winning 17, and five draws.
A near full-strength Broncos warmed up for Vegas with a big win over North Queensland in Mackay, scoring 30 points in the second half; while the Bulldogs beat the Storm at Belmore after trailing 12-10 at half-time.
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