Another round of entertaining games in the NSW Cup this week, as players jostle for uncertain spots among some first-grade sides. A streak continued, both in the good sense and the bad sense. Some teams fly high, whereas others need improvement and fast.

Without further adieu, here is a wrap of the weekend’s NSW Cup action:

New Zealand Warriors 18 (Saula Solomona, Paul Ulberg, Api Pewhairangi tries; Pewhairangi 3 goals) bt North Sydney Bears 16 (Aaron Gray 2, Jack Gosiewski tries; Nikko Roberts 2 goals).
Ricky’s View: Despite putting in one of their best efforts of the season, the Bears fell just short against experience campaigners in the Warriors. Despite missing two of their most potent attackers, the Warriors just managed to do enough and grab the victory.


Newcastle Knights 18 (Chad Redman, Marvin Filipo, Jaelen Feeney tries; Honeti Tuha, Danny Kerr, Redman goals) bt Penrith Panthers 16 (Nu’u Akeripa 2, Sam Scarlett tries; Will Smith 2 goals).
Ricky’s View: They may have raced out to a big lead but the Knights only just managed to hold on. Resiliency was the key for the Panthers and they had a chance to snatch a late draw, before somewhat of a lucky call went the way of the Knights and they opted for the simple penalty goal to take home a win.


Newtown Jets 32 (Mitch Brown 2, Jacob Gagan, Dallas Wells, Nesiasi Mataitonga, Todd Murphy tries; Murphy 4 goals) bt Manly Sea Eagles 26 (David Williams, Ben Fritz, Luke Garner, Jayden Hodges, Manaia Rudolph tries; Kurt Aldridge 3 goals).
Ricky’s View: An entertaining game all-round, as the Jets secured just their 2nd win of the season against a quality Manly side. It was a run of 16 unanswered points that got the Jets home, with their momentum and dominance proving too much for the Manly side to handle.


Mounties 26 (Bill Tupou, Gus Aiga, Sam Williams, Clay Priest, Dave Cahalane tries; Williams 3 goals) bt Wests Tigers 22 (Chance Peni 2, Kurtis Rowe, Josh Drinkwater tries; Drinkwater 3 goals).
Ricky’s View: The clash of the round billed two of the heavyweights against each other and it was Mounties who got the win. It continues their unbeaten start to the season, with the halves battle particularly intriguing to watch. The Tigers clawed their way back into the contest but a 16-point deficit ultimately proved too much.


Canterbury Bulldogs 34 (Shaun Lane 2, Levi Dodd, Jarrod Mclinally, Adam Elliot, Tautalatasi Tasi tries; Lindon McGrady 5 goals) bt Wyong Roos 24 (Nene McDonald 2, Brendan Elliot 2, Leivaha Pulu tries; Nathan Stapleton 2 goals).
Ricky’s View: Points were hard to come by at first, in what was a defensive showdown. Ultimately, it was the class of some emerging players in attack that got the Bulldogs the win and their defence to deny the Roos further chances to score was steely and dogged.


Wentworthville Magpies 18 (Ryan Matterson, Bureta Faraimo, Fabian Goodall tries; Luke Kelly 3 goals) bt Illawarra Cutters 16 (Justin Hunt, Peter Mata’utia, Kiti Glymin tries; Shannon Crook, Mata’Utia goals).
Ricky’s View: They did it the hard way winning by just two points but that was all that mattered, as the Magpies recorded their first win of the season. The match went back and forth and could have gone either way, but all it took was one missed conversion to hand Wenty a maiden win.


By ricky

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