NRL Tips & Preview – Finals Week 2

Sports writer, JASON OLIVER, looks over all four teams and previews this weekend’s Rugby League action with his NRL tips for all Week 2 Finals matches.

History: Played 35, Sea Eagles 19, Roosters 16

Last Meeting: Round 1, 2021: Roosters 46 def. Sea Eagles

Final Thoughts: The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles were ambushed by the Storm in Week 1 of the NRL Finals. Pulled to pieces in attack and dominated in defence early, the Sea Eagles were never in a game they ended up losing 40-12. Meanwhile, the Sydney Roosters were in their match against the Gold Coast Titans for a little longer than most expected. In fact, their 25-24 win came down to the final pass which the Titans put into touch.

Lachlan Croker returns to hooker for the Sea Eagles with Karl Lawton dropping to the bench and Curtis Sironen out of the side. No good news for the Roosters, though. Siosiua Taukeiaho is out with a leg injury and is replaced by Nat Butcher. Sam Verrills is also unavailable after failing to clear his name at the judiciary on Tuesday night.

This looks a step too far for the Roosters in 2021. Players seem to fall over every week and this is nothing close to their full-strength side. However, the Sea Eagles showed some vulnerability last week. They didn’t have the answers to a Storm defence that took Trbojevic out of the game and nobody else put themselves in a position to make up the difference. Daly Cherry-Evans really struggled to make his mark while Kieran Foran was cramped on a left edge that Melbourne had covered for the full 80 minutes. The Roosters are well-drilled and will look to take Trbojevic out of the game as the Storm did, but will struggle given their injuries in the middle. This game profiles as one the Roosters will be up for early but run out of steam as Josh Aloiai, Marty Taupau, Taniela Paseka, Sean Keppie, Haumole Olakau’atu and Jake Trbojevic provide the Sea Eagles with yardage and punch through the middle from siren to siren. Trent Robinson’s side needs to dominate the middle for most of the match to keep up with the Sea Eagles on the scoreboard. Their inexperienced bench will make that difficult.

Tip: Margin – Sea Eagles 1-12 @ $3.10
Same Game Multi: Sea Eagles to win/Schuster anytime/Under 46.5 points @ $10.76

History: Played 44, Panthers 23, Eels 21

Last Meeting: Round 25, 2021: Panthers 40 def. Eels 6

Final Thoughts: The Penrith Panthers were beaten at their own game as the Rabbitohs crashed the middle, defended their line and kicked their way to a 16-10 victory. While the Parramatta Eels held on to beat the Knights 28-20, it wasn’t the sort of performance that promotes many hopes of an upset this week.

Moses Leota and Dylan Edwards have been named for the Panthers after missing Week 1 of the NRL Finals. Stephen Crichton is back onto the wing while Charlie Staines is out of the side entirely. For the Eels, Brad Arthur has named Ryan Matterson on the bench after leaving him out last week. Makahesi Makatoa makes way for Matterson with Bryce Cartwright keeping his place on the bench.

Penrith struggled for a Plan B against the Rabbitohs on Saturday night. When things started to go against them and they realised the South Sydney defence wouldn’t crumble like most others have done throughout the 2021 NRL season, they didn’t have any answers. Nathan Cleary and company weren’t far off, though. A pass here or bounce of the ball there could have turned the game on its head. They may face similar challenges this week against an Eels side that has proven it can defend its line against the best attacking teams in the competition. While they wouldn’t have beaten any other team that played last week, they didn’t need to and that has been a trend of Parramatta’s season. They’ve often dropped to the standard of their opposition. On the flipside, as we saw against the Storm in Round 23, they are just as likely to rise to the quality of their opposition a week later. Parramatta has the pack to match Penrith provided they play a lot more direct than in Week 1. They displayed some promising moments against the Knights around a handful of sets in which they fell into bad habits and went too wide too early. However, expect a significant improvement out of the Panthers. They lacked direction last week in an untimely and uncharacteristic performance. With their focus sure to return to the yardage game to build pressure, they should start to pull away from the Eels after halftime.

Tip: 2nd Half Handicap – Panthers -6.5 @ $1.98
Same Game Multi: Panthers 13+/Burton anytime/Over 42.5 Points @ $5.99