The NRL Round 7 Thread

Yes, no attempt to catch. Just ran into the catcher.

Pretty clear that that should have been a Chooks pen.

Errors from everyone in this match - players and officials.

Roosters too clunky tonight to beat a team as good as Storm, particularly with the help Ashley Clown has given to them.

JWH with a good wrapping legs tackle on NAS penalised. Just the wrong call.

A number of concerning calls from Klein and Gee out there tonight. Chooks not threatening enough in attack, but the calls had a regrettable affect on the outcome.

A good tough contest though.

Some very iffy calls in that match imo .  
Also , do we think Big Nelson has a special exemption in terms of the ptb rules ?

That bin beckoned Teddy but …

… no

As sports photography goes this is the money shot:

Why can’t Tedesco find shorts that stay up 

Friday’s Matches

UK kick off times

Aussie times (AEST)

Dragons v Warriors

DRAGONS
 Shane Flanagan has made one forced change after last week’s 24-12 win over the Tigers. Jack Bird is ruled out after failing his HIA. Christian Tuipulotu comes into the side on the wing with Zac Lomax moving to centre.

Lomax has been one of the best wingers in the competition so far this season, particularly under the high ball.

WARRIORS

Andrew Webster also has one forced change, with Jazz Tevaga suffering a hamstring injury. 
Adam Pompey moves into the 17 to take his place on the bench.

Fresh off the back of a 22-all draw against Manly last week, the Warriors will feel they deserved the two points, after coming back from 16-0 down. Despite falling short of the win, they’ve  proved they’re one of the most resilient teams in the competition.

With Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad returning at fullback over the past few weeks, the Warriors’ attack has gone from strength to strength.

In this fixture at WIN Stadium last year, the Warriors scored 48 points, with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak scoring four tries himself.
The Dragons’ defence has hopefully improved in the meantime.

Our R7 forum tipsters:

Dragons to win - 4

Warriors to win - 12

  V 

Eels v Dolphins Preview

 Eels host their annual game up north in Darwin against The Dolphins.

The ‘home’ side, the Eels, will be aiming to re-establish themselves in the top eight, meanwhile, The Dolphins will be intent on maintaining their own mostly positive start to the 2024 season.

DOLPHINS
Last week, The Dolphins lost to Brisbane Broncos, in a competitive match for a long while. Eventually, the Broncos prevailed with a 28-14 victory. H Tabuai-Fidow suffered a hamstring injury. Coach Wayne Bennett brings in Trae Fuller to take his place, while Sean O’Sullivan also joins the bench in place of suspended Anthony Milford. 

EELS

Parramatta Eels were able to get back to winning ways with a 27-20 victory over the North Queensland Cowboys. Daejarn Asi had a good game at five-eighth (stand off half), while the reshuffled back-line was far better defensively than it had been in weeks past.
This week youngster Blaize Talagi gets a place on the bench.

The tipsters in our forum competition this week are split as follows

Dolphins to win 6

Eels to win 10

Dolphins had to get NRL dispensation to select from outside their 30 NRL playing list. The injury crisis spread to Wayne Bennet who hasnt travelled to Darwin because of a bout of flu.

Shaun Johnson jogs through a fairly static Dragons defence to open the scoring with a try and a conversion.

Moses Suli, whose side the Warriors have been targetting, scores his first try of the year, from a nicely-timed pass from Hunt.

Now Ravalawa breaks his duck and the Dragons are in front for the first time.

Ben Hunt beats three Warriors to reach out and touch down. Lomax kicks his first conversion of the match and it is SGI 14:06 WAR.

With seconds to go, Lomax lands a 2-point drop goal.

HT Score - SGI 16:06 WAR

The Warriors are heading off the field on the way to bit of a rollocking from the coach. Very sloppy discipline.

Well that was a half of two halves. First 20 minutes you'd think the Dragons would have accepted a final score of 20-0 and just gone home.

Lomax soars with perfect timing to catch a high kick and touch down. He converts for 22:06.

Ben Hunt pounces on a loose ball and unleashes Tyrell Sloan for a beauty of a long-range try. DWZ's attempted tackle was symptomatic of the Warriors' performance in general.

DWZ scores a try at last.

30:12

This has mostly been a "vintage" Warriors performance. Blunt attack, porous defence, RTS running in circles.

FULLTIME - St George-Illawarra 30:12 New Zealand Warriors

The Dragons were superb, especially in defence.

What a great performance by Dragons against a side whose defence was previously pretty solid. 
Hunt and Lomax caught the eye, but a great team job well done.

That was good . Zac you’re  making a big mistake !

Dolphins have tape over a sponsor name. I think it might be Alternaleaf, a "holistic" medical service who prescribe medicinal cannabis-based treatments, among other medical services. On the Dolphins site they don't have Alternaleaf listed among their sponsors anymore although some of their 2024 strips have shown it. Some versions showed Cove as the sponsor but they aren't listed on the site anymore either. The jumpers in their site shop show a blank space in that area although the main pic shows Jake Armadillo wearing the Alternaleaf version.