The Warriors season lays in ruins after cracks started to show in the squad following the sacking of coach Stephen Kearney, and the decision of several players to return to their families in New Zealand.

Tenth placed Tigers went into the game as firm favourites with the bookies and knew that a win would lift them into seventh in the table.

A win for the Warriors would lift them to twelfth but a heavy loss could have seen them drop as low as fifteenth, and possibly finish the round propping up the table.

There were multiple changes from both coaches with Twal, Garner and Mikaele in for the Tigers and Alvaro, Jennings, Herbert and Egan named in the Warriors side after several players elected to return home to their families in New Zealand.

Round Twelve of the NRL opened with eleventh placed St George Illawarra Dragons against tenth placed South Sydney Rabbitohs with the Dragons the bookies favourites to pick up the points.

Both coaches made three changes to last weekends sides.

The Dragons had Pereira, Sims and Sailor in their seventeen while the Rabbitohs welcomed back Latrell Mitchell, Knight and Mago.

The Dragons needed to win by more than twenty points to get them above the Rabbitohs, but a win for Souths could see them up into seventh place in the table.

With the Canadian based side Toronto Wolfpack already out of the competition, another five sides yesterday announced their decision to withdraw from the 2020 Challenge Cup, plunging the RFL and remaining clubs into confusion.

A decision was quickly agreed with the BBC, sponsors Coral, and the clubs themselves to salvage the competition by staging a re-draw which occurred tonight and was broadcast live on the OuRLeague site.

The remaining ten Super League sides, minus the Wolfpack and Huddersfield Giants, who had previously been eliminated in the fifth round at the hands of the Toronto team.

The Penrith Panthers had their eyes on a return to the top of the table as the travelled to the Cbus Super Stadium to take on the Gold Coast Titans.

The bookies thought that it was a foregone conclusion, with the Titans languishing in fourteenth place in the table.

Both coaches made a myriad of changes to last weekends sides.

Justin Holbrook brought in Dale Copley, Jai Whitehead, Kevin Proctor, Nathan Peats and Sam Stone while Ivan Cleary named Caleb Aekins, Malakai Watene-Zelezniak, Matt Burton and Mitch Kenny in his Panthers side.

The final game of round eleven looked, on paper at least, as though it would be one-way traffic.

Despite both sides registering a loss in round ten, the Sydney Roosters were massive favourites to take the two ladder points from the New Zealand Warriors who could only muster a single win in their last five outings.

There were deep problems in the Warriors camp with players deciding to return home to their families after their extended time in isolation in Australia.

The Warriors do have a good track record in this fixture but took a beating in the encounters in the last couple of years and  the bookies and pundits suggested that this would be no different as the Roosters looked to leapfrog the Newcastle Knights into fourth spot.

The Roosters were without the services of Boyd Cordner and Angus Crichton who were replaced by Nat Butcher and Poasa Faamausili while the Warriors made three changes from last weekends side with Adam Pompey, Chanel Harris-Tavita and Lachlan Burr in for Paasi, Herbert and Egan.

With the season resumption less than 2 weeks away all eyes are on the first full set of Covid19 testing results.



From 924 Tests the were found to be 0 Positive results.

The Penrith Panthers were seeking their fifth consecutive victory as they continued their push for the top of the table.

A win in the last game of round ten would see them head the ladder going in to round eleven after the Eels slipped up yesterday and left the door wide open.

Their opposition, the North Queensland Cowboys, had issues at the other end of the table as they went into today’s game with just one win in the last five.

Nothing but an unlikely big points win would do anything to alter their league position, but it would keep them in sight of the top eight.

The bookies couldn’t see past a big Panthers win as one of the competitions in-form sides reached for the stars.

The New Zealand Warriors and Cronulla Sharks came into  their round ten game on the Gold Coast knowing that a loss would make any chance of a play-off place a very difficult prospect as the shortened season hit half way with both sides languishing in the bottom seven.

Both sides suffered defeats last weekend, the Warriors going down 16-12 to the Titans while the Sharks were hammered by 56-24 by the Panthers.

A big win for the Sharks would lift them into the top eight but the best that the Warriors could hope for was to move up one place to twelfth.

Few could see past a win for top of the ladder side Paramatta Eels as they face eleventh placed Manly Sea Eagles.

A win would put the Eels two points clear at the top of the ladder after Melbourne Storm joined them yesterday.

A win for the Sea Eagles would lift them two places into ninth and keep them in touch with the all-important top eight.

Manly had Corey Waddell in for Morgan Boyd while the Eels brought in Andrew Davey and George Jennings for Blake Ferguson and Ryan Matterson.

A vociferous home crowd hoped that their side could spring a surprise.

On paper it looked like the tie of the rounds as eighth placed South Sydney Rabbitohs took on a sixth placed Newcastle Knights side at the Bankwest Stadium.

The bookies could barely split the two sides with the odds, the higher placed knights the slight favourites.

Both coaches made several changes from last week’s sides as coaches Bennett and O’Brien looked for the win to keep them in the chase for a top four finish and a week off in the elimination games of the play-offs.

The bunnies had Corey Allen and Jaxson Paulo in for Graham and Mitchell while the Knights brought in Connor Watson, Mitchell Barnett and Sione Mata’utia for Jones, Daniel Saifiti and Hoy.

 

Eighth placed Wests Tigers were the bookies favourites to pick up the two ladder points against fourteenth placed Brisbane Broncos at the Leichhardt Oval in Sydney.

Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold made two changes to last week’s winning line-up as Joe Ofahengaue and Richard Kennar came into the side.

Tigers coach Michael McGuire was forced into five alterations to the side which lost to the Rabbitohs in round nine with Billy Walters, Chris McQueen, Russell Packer, Sam McIntyre and Tommy Talau all being named in the seventeen.

Games between these two had been close in recent meetings but the Broncos had by far the better head-to-head record.

But this would be the Tigers night.

The final game of round nine of the NRL saw us down at the bottom end of the ladder as a struggling St George Illawarra Dragons took on the Manly Sea Eagles, who are doing little better themselves.

The Dragons has Jordan Pereira and Tariq Sims in for Saab and Korbin Sims while Manly had selected Brendan Elliot and Morgan Boyle in place of Fonua-Blake and Funa.

Despite their lower league position, the books favoured the Dragons for the win, but only just on the odds.

A close game was promised, but wasn't delivered.

After demolishing the Cowboys last weekend, the Paramatta Eels were looking for the win which would lift them back into the top of the table spot which they relinquished to the Penrith Panthers yesterday.

The opposition was a Newcastle Knights side who are also running hot and who defeated the Manly Sea Eagles in round eight.

The Eels coach Brad Arthur brought in Nathan Brown and Stefane Utoikamanu for Kaufusi and Stone while his opposite number Adam O’Brien switched Brodie Jones and Tautau Moga for Lee and Mata’utia.

The bookies fancied the Eels, but a 7,500 strong partisan crowd would be cheering the Knights.

Second placed Penrith Panthers had their sights set on the top of the table as they took on a Cronulla Sharks side sat in a mid-table eighth spot.

Both sides came into the game unbeaten in their last three outings, but the bookies favoured the Panthers to get the two points.

Coach Ivan Cleary made two changes to the Panthers line-up with debutant Charlie Staines and Spencer Leniu replacing To’o and Tetevano while Sharks head coach John Morris brought on Nene Macdonald for the injured Matt Moylan.

Damp conditions suggested a low scoring encounter, nothing could have prepared us for the eight points we were about to witness.

Two of the sides who have been struggling since the restart, the Gold Coast Titans and the New Zealand Warriors, met at the Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.

The Warriors welcomed back Roger Tuivasa-Sheck but it was at the cost of Kodi Nikorima whikle the Titans also made a couple of changes with Sam Stone and debutant Treymain Spry brought into the seventeen.

An eighteen-point winning margin for the Titans would lift them above the Warriors and a win for the Warriors would move them up the table by one place.

The Warriors were favourites with the bookies, but only just.

The Sydney Roosters were the strong favourites to overcome the challenge of the North Queensland Cowboys as the two sides met at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville.

Lachlan Lam, Matt Ikuvalu and Englishman Ryan Hall were back for the Roosters in place of Boyd Cordner, Daniel Tupou and late withdrawal Brett Morris as Trent Robinson was forced into changes.

Paul Green also made changes for the Cowboys bringing in Connelly Lemuelu, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Tom Gilbert in place of O’Neill, Cotter and Opacic.

A Roosters win would lift them to third but the Cowboys needed a big win to change their league position.

The August 2^nd restart for Super League looks in increasingly jeopardy as player action on wages has curtailed the return to pre-restart training for all but three topflight clubs in what is a constantly evolving and fast-moving situation.

It is understood that the decision of Hull FC directors to pay their players in full, despite not earning money through the turnstiles, has caused ructions amongst players from other sides who now want the same deal, potentially plunging their sides into economic turmoil.

Warrington Wolves prop forward Mike Cooper spilled the beans on the current stand-off, suggesting that only three sides have returned to training after reaching wage agreement with their players.

Two sides from the wrong half of the table met in Sydney as the Rabbitohs took on the Canterbury Bulldogs.

A win would see the Bulldogs off the bottom while the Rabbitohs could make it up to seventh if they could secure a decent points win.

The Rabbitohs made just one change with Patrick Mago in for Bayley Sironen while there were three changes for the ladders bottom club as Christian Crichton, Marcelo Montoya and Nick Meaney came in to replace Cogger, Averillo and Hopoate.

A mid-table clash between the Manly Sea Eagles and Newcastle Knights was the first game of Sunday’s round 8 games in the NRL.

A win for either side would lift them up the table and in amongst the leaders but a loss would be a blow to their play-off aspirations.

Both sides lost last time out and were keen to get back to winning ways.

There was just one change for the Sea Eagles with Moses Suli returning to replace Brendan Elliot.

The Knights brought in Bradman Best and Pasami Saulo to replace Shibasaki and Glasby.

With the Sharks unchanged from the side which beat the Manly Sea Eagles by 40-22 last Sunday, John Morris’s side were looking for a win which would lift them into the top half of the ladder and keep their hopes of a play-off position alive.

The Gold Coast Titans were seeking to build on their stunning 30-12 win over the Brisbane Broncos and continue their levitation from the bottom of the table as they looked to salvage something from the 2020 competition, but embattled coach Justin Holbrook was forced into four changes to his winning line-up.

The bookies fancied the Sharks for the win but the Titans upset the odds last weekend.