Brisbane winger Ashleigh Werner was sent off for biting opposite number Jayme Fressard in a controversial 36-18 win by the Sydney Roosters on the opening day of the NRLW competition.
The Broncos were trailing 30-18 on the Sunshine Coast when debutant Werner was tackled by Fressard in the 54th minute.
Fressard put her arm around the face of Werner before the incident occurred. The Roosters winger promptly sprung to her feet claiming she had been bitten on the arm.
After being reviewed by the Bunker, referee Wyatt Raymond spoke to Broncos captain Ali Brigginshaw and said: “The Bunker has reviewed it. The hand goes into the mouth and she punches down on the hand, so she’s off.”
Werner has been referred directly to the judiciary after the first match of her NRLW career. Post-match, Roosters coach John Strange said Fressard’s arm had been left bloodied and marked from the incident.
Broncos coach Scott Prince admitted footage of the incident “didn’t look good” but questioned whether Fressard may have mistaken legal contact for biting.
“Any time an arm or a hand is around someone’s head and in contact with the teeth, I know from experience, it actually feels like someone’s maybe biting at you,” the premiership-winning halfback said.
“It looked like and it felt like it was a bite but we’ll have to look. If there’s marks (on Fressard’s arm), we’ll have to trust her judgment.”
Roosters star centre Jessica Sergis scored two tries in the win.
Newcastle have begun their NRLW premiership defence with a 32-16 defeat of fast-finishing St George Illawarra.
Seven of the Knights’ 2022 premiership team left the club in the off-season but enough class remained to hold off a Dragons side unrecognisable after their own mass changes.
Newcastle’s forward pack allayed concerns that followed the departure of talismanic prop Millie Boyle, with Caitlan Johnston especially damaging on a shift from the middle to the edge.
The Knights’ 18-6 halftime advantage, engineered by premiership duo Tamika Upton and Jesse Southwell, gave the hosts a buffer at McDonald Jones Stadium to withstand two late Dragons tries.
Upton’s double-pump for winger-turned-second-rower Yasmin Clydsdale had Newcastle out to 12-0, and an inside ball from Southwell to Kayla Romaniuk extended the buffer to 18.
Teagan Berry was dynamic on her shift from wing to fullback and kept Saints in the contest with a try on the stroke of halftime, though the put-down appeared suspect.
When she scooped up a Southwell kick and sprinted away in the final ten minutes, Berry had her double and moved into equal-first on the all-time NRLW tryscoring stakes.
Rugby sevens convert Tyla Nathan-Wong scooted over from dummy-half in the set after points to get the Dragons within 10 points, but it was too little too late.
(Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
Earlier, Gold Coast fullback Evania Pelite showcased her class and power to inspire a 16-6 win over North Queensland, but the victory came at a cost.
Titans No.6 Taliah Fuimaono limped from the field in the second half with coach Karyn Murphy confirming after the clash there was concern the Jillaroos star had suffered an ankle injury.
Pelite, a 2016 Olympic gold medal winner with the Australian Rugby Sevens side and current Queensland State of Origin representative, was at her brilliant best with and without the ball.
The 27-year-old scored a crucial try, saved one and had a hand in the leadup to another at Cbus Super Stadium where she ran for 248m and made 15 tackle busts.
“Vani (Pelite) was massive with a try-saving tackle late in the game and with her carries at the back,” Murphy said.
The Cowboys had a great start to their existence as a NRLW club with hooker Emma Manzelmann darting out of dummy-half to score with a dazzling run through the middle.
Pelite then made a slick short-side play in the leadup to winger Destiny Mino-Sanapati’s try to get the hosts on the scoreboard.
Pelite’s blockbusting running style and footwork secured Gold Coast’s lead for the first time in the match with a 40m surge to the tryline.
The Cowboys refused to give in, even after losing winger Mia Middleton to the sin bin after she dumped opposite number Emily Bass on her head.
Pelite made a try-saver on the visitors’ second-rower Shaniah Power before Titans back-rower Zara Canfield bullocked her way over under the posts.
Wests Tigers and Cronulla have announced their arrival in the NRLW with stylish victories over well-fancied rivals.
The Tigers thrashed last year’s runners-up Parramatta 36-8 as returning fullback Botille-Vette Welsh and prop Sarah Togatuki starred, while the Sharks thumped fellow debutants Canberra 28-14 in Sunday’s second game.
Fielding seven debutants at CommBank Stadium, the Tigers had been tipped to take time to warm into their inaugural season given the number of fresh faces on their roster.
But established players Togatuki and Vette-Welsh stood up in a fast-finishing win that gives long-suffering Tigers fans something to cheer about.
Togatuki finished with 219-run metres – almost 100m more than any Eels forward – and the try that opened the floodgates in the second half.
Fullback Vette-Welsh celebrated her first game back from an anterior cruciate ligament injury with an early try and five late assists, mostly in the form of dynamic passes for her edge players.
The Eels lost their two star recruits Elsie Albert and Rachael Pearson to calf injuries in their final training session but had the better of the first half despite needing to make last-minute changes.
The Eels are still assessing Papua New Guinea international prop Albert and NSW representative half Pearson but they do not believe the injuries are long-term at this stage.
Zali Fay became the second player to score two tries in an NRLW game for Parramatta, crossing twice on the left wing to help the Eels to a 8-4 half-time lead.
But that was as good as things got for the home side.
Vette-Welsh became the Tigers’ first NRLW tryscorer in her first NRLW game since suffering an ACL tear that ruled her out of the 2022 campaign.
She dummied and stepped inside a hole on the left but errors prevented the Tigers from scoring again in the first half.
But when Vette-Welsh scooted into the line and passed to a flying Togatuki, the former Sydney Rooster ran 30 metres to score and sparked a 19-minute skirmish during which Wests score five more times.
Once the Tigers had their eye in, the Eels were alarmingly short of answers, Vette-Welsh and under-19s NSW State of Origin representative Losana Lutu combining effectively on the edges.
When Vette-Welsh popped an inside ball to Jakiya Whitfeld, the Tigers had opened up a 12-point buffer and were on their way to a big win.
Five years after being controversially denied entry to the competition, Cronulla piled on six tries to three at PointsBet Stadium with NSW State of Origin stars Emma Tonegato and hooker Quincy Dodd, and exciting teenage fullback Jada Taylor the stand-outs.
Tonegato made the shift from fullback to five-eighth to accommodate Taylor’s inclusion and controlled the game with aplomb while also etching her name in the history books as Cronulla’s first-ever NRLW try-scorer.
Centre and captain Tiana Penitani, impressive second-rower Vanessa Foliaki and prop Ellie Johnston also crossed for the winners.
After jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Sharks had to weather a mid-match fightback from the Raiders and would have won more handsomely had halfback Tayla Preston slotted more than two of her six conversion attempts.
The Raiders threatened a comeback when they narrowed the deficit to four points with quickfire tries either side of the break through winger Madison Bartlett, who finished with a double, and interchange hooker Emma Barnes.
But Dodd snuffed out the recovery mission with her second try in the 42nd minute, this time squeezing over from dummy-half after a runaway effort before the interval.
© AAP
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