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The Auckland Nines have their fourth champion in four years, with the Sydney Roosters surprising everyone to make and win the final against fellow surprise packets the Penrith Panthers in a thriller, ten points to eight.
Seven talking points from the Auckland Nines
If you had have picked the Roosters and Panthers to be the two sides in the final on Saturday morning, you would have been labelled crazy, but the sides played solid football all weekend to make the final.
The final came down to a conversion, with the Panthers coming home strongly after the Roosters got off to a dominant start.
At halftime, the final had a 10-0 scoreline with the Panthers looking out of gas and options, spending too much time in defence and working the ball out of their own end.
The first try came to Daniel Tupou in just the third minute, with one of the Roosters better players, Paul Carter, sending him away with an incredible offload on the halfway line.
The Roosters followed it up with another not long afterwards. Following a Penrith error in their own end, Sydney shifted it out to the left with Brendan Lewis being on the end of it to crash over in the corner.
Penrith had half an opportunity before the break to level, but sprung to life not long afterwards with Nathan Cleary again sparking his side to life, firing a cut out ball for Isiah Yeo to come inside, then go back to Malaki Watene-Zelezniak who scored in the corner.
The Panthers then had opportunities to crack the Roosters line, but couldn’t until Cleary again created the attack, starting from within his own half, dummying and stepping to do it all himself before running 50 metres to score.
Unfortunately for the men from the foot of the mountain, Cleary was covered by some good scrambling defence to stop him getting close to the posts and with just seconds left, the conversion missed meaning the Panthers chances of tying the game and sending it to extra time were dashed.
In the end, it’s the Roosters taking the Auckland Nines with the season just weeks away.
Fulltime
Penrith Panthers 8
Sydney Roosters 10
Player of the tournament: Connor Watson
Cameron Munster (Melbourne Storm)
Kalyn Ponga (North Queensland Cowboys)
Suaia Matagi (Parramatta Eels)
Brodie Croft (Melbourne Storm)
Connor Watson (Sydney Roosters)
Gideon Gela-Mosby (North Queensland Cowboys)
Waqa Blake (Penrith Panthers)
Moses Leota (Penrith Panthers)
Latrell Mitchell (Sydney Roosters)
Women’s matches
Game 1: Jillaroos defeat Ferns 20-4
Game 2: Jillaroos defeat Ferns 8-0
Game 3: Jillaroos defeat Ferns 14-4
Round 1
Titans 29 defeated Sharks 4
Panthers 28 defeated Bulldogs 18
Eels 32 defeated Dragons 11
Sea Eagles 15 defeated Warriors 11
Knights 18 defeated Tigers 10
Broncos 18 defeated Storm 4
Cowboys 27 defeated Roosters 15
Raiders 15 defeated Rabbitohs 12
Round 2
Panthers 16 defeated Sharks 14
Titans 17 defeated Bulldogs 10
Sea Eagles 23 defeated Dragons 20
Eels 17 defeated Warriors 0
Broncos 21 defeated Knights 8
Storm 14 defeated Tigers 6
Cowboys 35 defeated Raiders 6
Roosters 14 defeated Rabbitohs 7
Round 3
Sharks 28 defeated Bulldogs 4
Panthers 11 defeated Titans 4
Eels 17 defeated Sea Eagles 12
Dragons 14 defeated Warriors 10
Tigers 17 defeated 11
Storm 20 defeated Knights 10
Cowboys 19 defeated Rabbitohs 8
Roosters 21 defeated Raiders 0
Quarter-finals
Panthers 16 defeated Sea Ealges 12 (ET)
Eels 14 defeated Titans 0
Roosters 15 defeated Broncos 14
Storm 25 defeated Cowboys 12
Semi-finals
Panthers 13 defeated Eels 0
Roosters 21 defeated Storm 16
Final
Roosters defeated Panthers 10