NRL News: Dogs could poach Rooster, SOS from the Sharks, Holmes on Tigers humbling

Canterbury’s recruitment drive could see them poach Connor Watson from the Roosters with the Daily Telegraph linking the utility to Belmore.

Watson is yet to play at all in 2023 after suffering an injury in the off-season, and is off-contract at the end of this year.

The Bulldogs have identified him as a player who could add much-needed utility value, as well as someone with potentially game-breaking football skills.

In that regard, he has a similar profile to other recent targets, including Souths fullback/half Blake Taaffe and Panthers back-rower/half Jaeman Salmon.

Dogs GM of Football Phil Gould was recently spotted at lunch with Taaffe, who is now touted to join once his Bunnies contract expires at season’s end.

Canterbury have also been linked to former Roosters prop Siasiua Taukieaho, now with the Catalans Dragons in Super League, and have already announced the arrival of Souths forward Liam Knight, who joined on Monday.

Nicho Hynes. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Save Our Season from the Sharks

Defiant under fire, Cronulla are pledging to silence their growing bunch of critics with a shock, season-saving NRL upset win over reigning premiers Penrith.

Branded flat-track bullies, the Sharks have been widely written off after back-to-back losses to the Warriors and Manly left Craig Fitzgibbon’s side walking the finals tightrope.

Much has been made of Cronulla’s one-from-eight record against top-eight opposition, but the Sharks believe they can wipe the slate pristinely clean with a victory over the Panthers in Penrith on Saturday night.

“It’s not fully crisis stage yet. We’re still sitting in sixth place and obviously it’s probably the tightest comp in the history of the NRL,” power forward Toby Rudolph said on Wednesday.

“But our backs are against the wall every week and that’s the way we want to play.

“Obviously the last two weeks we haven’t shown that but we’re looking to change that this week in a remarkable fashion.”

Rather than dwell on falling painfully short of pulling off the biggest comeback win in 115 seasons of premiership history, Cronulla are drawing confidence from Sunday’s 30-26 home loss to Manly.

The Sharks trailed 30-0 before conjuring a spirited second-half revival only to bomb a late chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

The fightback was in stark contrast to the surrender to the Warriors and has left the Sharks calling it a “stepping stone” to build on for Penrith.

Saturday’s showdown not only pits the top two sides from last year’s minor premiership against each other, but also the best attacking side – statistically at least – from 2023 against the strongest defence.

Cronulla are scoring an average of 27.5 points a game this campaign and Penrith conceding an average of only 13.11.

“The way they defend, it’s a marvel to look at and we’ll have our hands full this weekend,” Rudolph said.

“But we’re more than up to the challenge.

“Every week’s an audition to put what we’ve been talking about to the test and there’s no better test than the two-time defending premiers.

“That’s the team we all want to emulate or all want to be. 

“We want to be up there on grand final day lifting the shield above our heads and, at the moment, there’s no one better to put that to the test than Penrith.”

Centre Jesse Ramien also insists the Sharks can go all the way this year despite the setbacks of the past fortnight. 

“There’s not a doubt in the world in our mind, in these four walls here. We’ve got massive confidence,” he said.

“Winning games changes all that. It’s a simple fix – go out there and win some games.”

Valentine Holmes (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Tigers humbling helped, says Holmes

North Queensland centre Valentine Holmes credits a whipping at the hands of Wests Tigers in round 12 for the stunning turnaround in the side’s form.

The Cowboys were beaten 66-18 at Leichhardt Oval and slumped to 16th on the NRL ladder.

They also lost the following week to Parramatta in a much better display but since then have won six games in a row to move to seventh.

They have beaten competition heavyweights Penrith, Melbourne, the Eels and Souths in that winning sequence.

On Sunday, North Queensland travel to the Gold Coast with their confidence and form sky high. 

“The game against the Tigers down there really hurt us individually as players and as a team we had to have a look at ourselves as a team,” Holmes said.

“It just wasn’t the way we had planned it. After that Tigers game we knew that wasn’t us with the way he played. We wanted to turn things around.

“It all just came down to effort and wanting to make tackles, wanting to chase back. That is what we’ve been doing. We haven’t changed much, except how much we’ve been competing on every play.”

Holmes is a Queensland regular in the State of Origin arena but he says the Maroons’ 2-1 series win was just the tonic for the contingent of Cowboys in the squad. Hooker Reece Robson was also selected for NSW and fullback Scott Drinkwater was 18th man for the Blues in game three.

Murray Taulagi, Reuben Cotter, Jeremiah Nanai and Tom Dearden were other club teammates in the Maroons squad.

“It seems like it has been a plus for all seven of us boys, even Drinky got a taste of it in game three,” he said.

“It is always a privilege to be in those camps but confidence wise we weren’t travelling that well as a club before Origin.

“The guys have come back more confident in their own game and they have brought the confidence back for the rest of the team.

“The recognition of being selected (in Origin) even though you are not going so well as a team or personally … when you come back you don’t want to let your teammates down.”

Holmes was the fastest North Queensland player to reach the 600 points mark in last week’s 24-16 win over Parramatta, taking him just 73 games. Johnathan Thurston (2182 points) and Josh Hannay (882) are the other two Cowboys to reach the milestone, but did it in 95 and 110 games respectively.

“It is pretty special and an honour to be up there with those names,” Holmes said.

With AAP