St George Illawarra have gone top of the NRLW ladder for the first time in their history after knocking Brisbane off their perch with a record 40-4 win over Newcastle.
With one round to play before finals, the Dragons flexed their muscle with the biggest win of all-time in the NRLW while becoming the first team to score 40 points in a match.
Teagan Berry, Jaime Chapman, Emma Tonegato and Madison Bartlett all bagged doubles in the drubbing, with the latter’s haul coming in her return game from suspension for biting.
The win means the Broncos are not top of the premiership table for only the second week in the NRLW’s history.
And after being wooden spooners in two of the competition’s three seasons, teams will now seriously be looking at the Dragons as title frontrunners under coach Jamie Soward.
“I couldn’t care what they say,” Soward said. “I didn’t really know about (the ladder), I don’t think the girls did either.
“They didn’t watch much (Brisbane lose to Gold Coast) yesterday and today it was straight to the sheds. It’s onto next week for us.”
Their only concern was a lower back injury sustained by halfback Rachael Pearson, however the club is confident the issue is only minor and she has been battling it for weeks.
In a brutally one-sided affair, the Dragons had 65 per cent of the ball as the winless Knights could only complete 12 sets in the 70 minutes at their home ground.
The Red V also missed just five tackles, while Elise Albert was again dominant in the middle as she finished with 136 metres and lock Holli Wheeler had 131.
Tonegata’s first try was the pick of the day, stepping two defenders from a scrum 30 metres out to go over under the posts.
It kickstarted a second-half demolition job, as the Dragons ran in five tries in the space of 15 minutes.
Zahara Tamara has kept the Sydney Roosters’ NRLW hopes alive by booting a 25-metre field goal to kick them to a 19-18 win over Parramatta.
In a crucial penultimate-round clash in Newcastle, the Roosters led 12-0 early before fighting off a Parramatta comeback to stay in finals contention.
Grand finalists in two of the competition’s three previous seasons, defeat would have left Roosters needing a miracle to reach the top-four finals.
But instead their fate is still in their hands, sitting fifth on four points, but equal on wins with both Parramatta and Gold Coast.
It means a win over St George Illawarra next week will now likely be enough for the Roosters to make the top four, while Parramatta face top-ranked Brisbane.
It means all three final-round games will have a bearing on the play-off battle, with Gold Coast needing to beat Newcastle to have their best shot at qualifying.
And the Roosters largely have Temara to thank for staying in it.
In a see-saw battle, the Roosters were in complete control early when Brydie Parker and Mya Hill-Moana both crashed over in the first 12 minutes.
The Eels got it back to 12-6 at halftime, before halfback Maddie Studdon put on balls for both Christian Pio and Tiana Penitani to score as the Eels jumped out to a six-point advantage.
The pass to Pio hit the ground and looked as if it may have been forward, but the one to Penitani was a play of perfection as Studdon went short and hit the centre cutting back against the grain.
The Roosters returned fire via a Sarah Togatuki try, before a dramatic final 10 minutes for Temara.
She first blew an opportunity for a two-point lead with nine minutes to play when a penalty shot from 32 metres crashed into the left upright.
Parramatta continued to have the better opportunities with two missed field goals by Studdon, after having the majority of the ball after the break.
But with two minutes to play Tamara seized her moment, nailing just the second field goal in NRLW history and taking the battle for the finals to the last round.
“That’s Z, she’s cool and calm,” coach John Strange said.
“Practised that at training, setting up for that and she nails that every time.
“For her the way her attitude is, that’s just a training run for her. She doesn’t feel pressure.”
Gold Coast caused a massive NRLW upset, ending Brisbane’s long unbeaten run in the competition’s first Queensland derby.
The Titans, playing for the first time on home soil, edged out the Broncos 28-26 at Cbus Super Stadium in a thrilling affair to inflict just the second defeat on the premiers in NRLW history.
Not only is the loss Brisbane’s first since 2019, it’s the first time the Broncos have conceded over 20 points in a game in what is the highest-scoring match in the competition’s history.
Jasmine Peters scored a second-half double for the hosts in a game that featured nine different tryscorers.
After racing out to an early 12-0 lead, the Titans were pegged back by the Broncos before back-to-back tries on halftime had the visitors 20-18 ahead at the break.
Gold Coast refused to go away however, with both teams trading blows across the second-half before Brianna Clark’s 66th-minute penalty goal proved decisive.
“We just love playing tough footy and making it hard for ourselves,” Titans captain Brittany Breayley-Nati said.
“But I’m so proud of how the girls stood up today and come back to get the victory against the benchmark team in the competition.”
The Titans’ second win of the season on Saturday keeps them firmly in the finals hunt.
Brisbane were missing key players Millie Boyle (COVID-19) and Tamika Upton (concussion) but coach Kelvin Wright said his team simply hadn’t played to their potential.
“We’ve probably been spluttering along a bit for the whole competition to be fair and then today we didn’t sort of dig ourselves out,” Wright said.
“We just let our energy slide for too big patches and ultimately we paid for that.
“You never want to lose and we got what we deserved, I suppose, but the players are feeling it in there and we can be a lot better.”
Gold Coast face Newcastle next weekend in the first game of a double-header at Suncorp Stadium with Brisbane aiming to bounce back to winning ways against Parramatta.
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