Rabbits Ride Broncos While Knights Barbecue Chooks

By HeBeGeeBee on June 30, 2011 in Sport

Round sixteen of the 2011 NRL premiership went west for the first match this weekend with the Rabbitohs and Broncos playing over in Western Australia in torrential conditions. The Sharks continued their run of wins with yet another superhuman performance from Paul Gallen. The Grand Final dress rehearsal was played on Monday night with a classic choking of their opposition from the Dragons.

RABBITOHS 16 – BRONCOS 12

In some of the most torrential rain ever the Bunnies managed a gutsy win over a bland Brisbane Bronco’s team over in Perth on Friday night. It started badly for Brisbane when Yow Yeh fumbled a ball and gave the Rabbitohs perfect attacking position early on, which resulted in first points to Chris McQueen. Rhys Wesser impressed minutes later with another four pointer to get the green and reds out to a 12-point lead. The Broncs responded through Jack Reed and the score at half time meant it was easily anyone’s game to win. The Bunnies got a scare midway through the second half when Kurt Baptiste produced a fantastic dummy and slid across next to the posts and with 20 minutes left the scoreboard read 14-12. A penalty goal from Chris Sandow in the 80th minute got the margin out to 4 points giving the Rabbitohs a westerly win and shaking up the Bronco’s before game three of Origin.

Next Round – SHARKS vs. RABBITOHS (03/07 at 2:00pm Toyota Stadium)

KNIGHTS 18 – ROOSTERS 10

The Roosters scored first and scored last but forgot to score in the middle of this match, which was the period of the game that the Knights managed to cross three times for the win. Justin Carney made it look easy out wide and forced his way through to slide over in the corner. The Knights are showing signs of brilliance and with Supercoach Wayne Bennett signed on for next year it will mean they have a real chance of a premiership in the next three years. Meanwhile he Roosters are struggling with injuries but even a full roster may not mean they can perform on field and leaves coach Brian Smith a lot to do to get the Tri Colours back to the grand finalists they were last year.

Next Round – ROOSTERS vs. RAIDERS (04/07 at 7:00pm at the SFS)

TIGERS 6 – BULLDOGS 16

The Bulldogs found their way again this week and nabbed a win from a Benji Marshall-less Wests Tigers. Just the one try was scored in the first half by “Cranky’ Franky Pritchard and this gave the Doggies the edge they needed to go on with it in the second half. Ben Barba and Josh Morris scored the other two tries for the Bulldogs while the Tigers only managed to cross the line once late in the game.

TITANS 12 – SHARKS 36

The Sharks have found a resurgence of the will to win and thus far have grabbed a couple of wins on the trot including this drubbing of the Titans on the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon. Even though the Titans were first to score the Sharks matched them try for try and went into the break up by four points. The second half was one of the Sharks best this year and they roped in four tries to one to secure a demolition of a win over a hapless Titans outfit.

RAIDERS 25 – EELS 12

The Eels were coming off a draw to the Dragons and a tight loss to the Seas Eagles last week and looked to be prepared to grind out this win in Canberra against the Raiders. To say this game was either won or lost in the first half would be true and it would sway either way depending on which team you support. The Raiders grabbed two tries and a penalty goal to give them a three try margin going into the second half and although the Eels mounted a comeback they just lacked the punch to really make any impact succumbing to a much more determined Green Machine.

WARRIORS 8 – STORM 16

If there is one team that can shake the Storm it’s the Warriors with a pretty handy record against the methodical Storm the Warriors came and could have conquered but instead fell short. Melbourne scored a couple of early tries to give them a 2-10 lead before the break and the intensity in this match was palpable in the second half. Although the Warriors got to within two points the always amazing Billy ‘Steeden Magnet’ Slater dashed the home teams hopes with a late try to secure the win.

PANTHERS 30 – COWBOYS 20

The Cowboys have been a bit of a dark horse this year but were unable to continue their run when the Panthers scored a ten point win over them at Penrith on the weekend. Some great attacking plays made this game a spectacle to watch and a total of fifty points were scored. North Queensland grabbed the first points but still went into the break down 14-10, and in weeks past this would not have been a problem as they tend to put on a flurry of tries in the second stanza, but the Panthers performed a Cowboys-ish run and secured the win.

DRAGONS 24 – SEA EAGLES 6

Some saw this as the Grand Final dress rehearsal and it very well still could be but from this performance the Dragons will be hoisting the trophy up come September. Literally choking any chance of points from the Seas Eagles with unbreakable defence the Dragons scored two tries to give them the all-important lead going into the break. The defensive effort from the Red V’s meant the Sea Eagles only scored the one try while the Dragons crossed a total of four times for a comprehensive win over a quality opposition.