2024 NRL: Round 4 Recap and Key Stats

Check out what happened in round 4 of the National Rugby League competition.

Final Scores

PANTHERS 22 d ROOSTERS 16
RABBITOHS 20 d BULLDOGS 16
BRONCOS 38 d COWBOYS 12
DRAGONS 20 d SEA EAGLES 12
DOLPHINS 30 d TITANS 14
WARRIORS 20 d KNIGHTS 12
SHARKS 36 d RAIDERS 22
TIGERS 17 d EELS 16

Current Ladder

Dolphins 6 pts (29),  Penrith Panthers 6 pts (28),  North Queensland Cowboys 6 pts (22),  Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 6 pts (11),  Melbourne Storm 6 pts (10),  Wests Tigers 6 pts (7),  Sydney Roosters 4 pts (39),  Canberra Raiders 4 pts (14),  Parramatta Eels 4 pts (13),  New Zealand Warriors 4 pts (8),  Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 4 pts (7),  Brisbane Broncos 4 pts (4),  St George-Illawarra Dragons 4 pts (-28),  Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 2 pts (-9),  Newcastle Knights 2 pts (-23),  South Sydney Rabbitohs 2 pts (-60),  Gold Coast Titans 2 pts (-72).

Review

The Dolphins, Penrith, North Queensland, Cronulla-Sutherland, Melbourne, and the Wests Tigers all finished the Easter long weekend on six points.

Jack Bostock scored a double as The Dolphins came from 10-0 down at Cbus Super Stadium; Wayne Bennett’s men scored another three second half tries to cruise to an easy win, with Jamayne Isaako kicking five goals from five attempts.

Penrith defied Nathan Cleary’s absence with a win over the Sydney Roosters at the SFS. Sunia Turuva scored a hat-trick, and Dylan Edwards a try and three goals, as Penrith led 22-6 after 51 minutes. Though late tries to Brandon Smith and Daniel Tupou gave the Roosters some scoreboard credibility. There was more obstruction controversy: a Joseph Manu try was denied after Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was ruled to have obstructed Edwards from getting across to defend.

Cronulla-Sutherland scored 30 straight points to defeat Canberra at Shark Park. Trailing 18-0 after 24 minutes, the Sharks turned the game in 35 minutes, with two tries to Ronaldo Mulitalo, while Nicholas Hynes kicked six goals from six attempts.

The Wests Tigers pulled off a dramatic Easter Monday win at CommBank Stadium. With the score tied 16-16, Aidan Sezer kicked a field goal to put the Tigers up by one. A penalty from the kick-off gave Clint Gutherson a chance to win the game, but he missed the penalty goal. Justin Olam scored a double for the Tigers.

South Sydney and Brisbane both won on Good Friday: Souths beat Canterbury-Bankstown at Homebush (with Souths’ Jack Wighton scoring a double for his new club), and Brisbane defied wet conditions to belt North Queensland infront of 45,000+ at Lang Park. St George Illawarra beat Manly Warringah at Wollongong (a double to Tyrell Sloan), and the NZ Warriors beat Newcastle at Mt Smart Stadium.

Key Stats

• Sunia Turuva becomes the first player to score a hat-trick for the Panthers versus the Roosters since Nathan Cleary in the 2020 NRL Finals (3 tries, 4 goals, 1 field goal) on October 2, 2020.
• Turuva’s third try was the 1,000th point scored in the NRL this season.
• Daniel Tupou has now scored the last try in a Roosters versus Panthers game for the fourth time.
• South Sydney won their first game in 230 days with victory over the Bulldogs (last win vs Dragons, August 8, 2023) and 321 days at Stadium Australia (last win vs Tigers, May 13, 2023)
• Jack Wighton scored his first career double since week 1 of the NRL finals in 2021 when Canberra beat Cronulla 32-20 at GIO Stadium on October 3, 2020.
• Tyson Smoothy scored his first career try in his 21st NRL appearance after debuting with Melbourne on March 11, 2021.
• Corey Oates scored his first NRL try in 588 days in the Broncos 38-12 win over the Cowboys. He’s now scored 68 of his 119 career tries at Suncorp Stadium.
• Tyrell Sloan has now scored 8 of his 25 career tries at WIN Stadium.
• Reuben Garrick passed 1,000 career points in Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles loss to St George-Illawarra Dragons. His tally now stands at 1,002 points (69 tries, 363 goals)
• Jaimin Jolliffe scored his first try in 594 days (last try vs Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles on August 14, 2022). All four career tries have been scored at CBUS Super Stadium.
• Jack Bostock scored his first career double in the Dolphins win over Gold Coast Titans.
• The Dolphins won back-to-back for the first time since they won their first three games in their debut season.
• Chanel Harris-Tavita scored his first NRL try since his return to the game. His last try was 637 days earlier for the Warriors against the Wests Tigers at Go Media Stadium on July 3, 2022.
• Ronaldo Mulitalo has now scored 16 career doubles. His two tries against the Raiders was the second time he’s completed the feat against that club at the same venue.
• James Schiller has scored on three different occasions in the NRL, each time scoring doubles (vs Storm on July 17, 2022; vs Knights on September 10, 2023 at McDonald Jones Stadium; and vs Sharks, March 31, 2024 at PointsBet Stadium)