The Dolphins continued their excellent start to their inaugural season with a third successive victory, running away with a 36-20 victory over the Newcastle Knights in the first of Friday’s games.
Wayne Bennett’s outfit started brilliantly with a try in the ninth minute, but they initially couldn’t shrug the depleted Knights who matched the Dolphins for much of the opening hour.
Newcastle showed flashes, mostly through fullback Lachlan Miller, who scored an excellent 70-metre try in the early stages of the second half to give the Knights a brief lead.
Miller hits the ground running 🏎️ #NRLKnightsDolphins pic.twitter.com/pJNfCcKnJ9
— NRL (@NRL) March 17, 2023
However, the Dolphins proved to be too much for the Knights to handle, running in four tries in the last 20 minutes, finishing the match in emphatic fashion.
One of those four tries was scored by Dolphins’ winger Tesi Niu, who recorded his first career hat-trick with tries in the ninth, 32nd and 66th minutes to round off an impressive outing that saw him accumulate the most metres out of anyone on the field with 230 metres.
Surprisingly, the Dolphins become the first team to win three games this season. However, they could be joined at 3-0 by the Brisbane Broncos if they win later Saturday, setting up a monster clash for the two Brisbane sides next weekend.
Tesi Niu making history with the Dolphins first hat-trick 💪 #NRLKnightsDolphins pic.twitter.com/mZDR6CTvNR
— NRL (@NRL) March 17, 2023
In the second Friday night game, the Sydney Roosters had the last laugh against their mortal enemy, defeating the South Sydney Rabbitohs by two-points in a tamer version of their qualifying final from last season.
Despite the end result, it was the Rabbitohs who looked the most likely during the opening stages of the clash with Jason Demetriou’s side scoring two tries in the opening 12 minutes, taking a quick 10-nil lead.
The Rabbitohs were establishing their premiership credentials with some dominant footy, but the Roosters had other ideas.
The injection of enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and new signing Brandon Smith into the game in the 24th minute changed the momentum of the match and the Roosters quickly found themselves on the front foot.
Brandon Smith's first try for the Roosters 🐓 #NRLRoostersSouths pic.twitter.com/HHiYja80Io
— NRL (@NRL) March 17, 2023
From that point on, the Roosters dominated possession and made the most of the Rabbitohs 15 errors as they piled on 20 straight points, effectively taking Souths out of the game.
The match heated up in the closing stages as emotions spilled out after Joseph Manu was sin-binned for dangerous contact on Isaiah Tass, leading to a combination of sledging and shirtfronting which saw the Rabbitohs’ Michael Chee-Kam join Manu on the sideline.
With emotions still flaring, Souths grabbed a late try through Izaac Thompson to bring the score to 20-18 but it was too little too late, as the Roosters head into the bye with the two points.
Two big matches and two losses in a row for the Rabbitohs isn’t made any easier by hosting the firing Manly Warringah Sea Eagles next Saturday.