Round 8 (updated May 08)

		W	L	B	+/-	Pts
1	Sea Eagles	7	1	0	90	14
2	Storm	7	1	0	62	14
3	Cowboys	6	2	0	43	12
4	Warriors	4	3	1	25	10
5	Sharks	4	4	0	64	8
6	Rabbitohs	4	4	0	20	8
7	Tigers	3	4	1	20	8
8	Bulldogs	4	4	0	8	8
9	Titans	4	4	0	-4	8
10	Eels	4	4	0	-5	8
11	Knights	4	4	0	-48	8
12	Broncos	3	5	0	-10	6
13	Dragons	2	5	1	-58	6
14	Raiders	3	5	0	-61	6
15	Panthers	2	6	0	-40	4
16	Roosters	1	6	1	-106	4

NRL Ladder and Points Table after Round 7

Club		PTS
1	Storm		14
2	Sea Eagles		12
3	Cowboys		10
4	Warriors		10
5	Rabbitohs		8
6	Titans		8
7	Knights		8
8	Sharks		6
9	Wests Tigers		6
10	Bulldogs		6
11	Eels		6
12	Raiders		6
13	Broncos		4
14	Panthers		4
15	Dragons		4
16	Roosters		4

	Club		PTS
1	Sea Eagles		12
2	Storm		12
3	Cowboys		8
4	Warriors		8
5	Rabbitohs		8
6	Sharks		6
7	Bulldogs		6
8	Eels		6
9	Titans		6
10	Knights		6
11	Broncos		4
12	Panthers		4
13	Wests Tigers		4
14	Dragons		4
15	Raiders		4
16	Roosters		2

NRL News
No substitute for Brute Strength

By Peter Roy

Rugby League has evolved a lot in the last ten years with fitness and athleticism more valuable than anything else. Sometimes a good footballer can take a backrow seat to a highly tuned athlete who can play more minutes, make more tackles and be fit for the following week.

Looking at some of the skill and flair of players like Karmicheal Hunt, with his huge step or Benji's hop skip and jump - these are certainly crowd favourites.

As much as this is exciting to watch, nothing gets fans more pumped up or vocal than a massive defensive hit. Even todays fans, who see a more policed game and less physical intent - still love to see the big hits and rough stuff come into play. (Who can forget Ray Warren's famous words "Awwwwww CRUNCH") - it's not just heavy hitting in defence - but also brutal front on aggressive attack is also loved by the NRL fans. A Grothe style run where the tackler gets flattened or Carl Webb running like a wild mad man and knocking defenders over like ten pins.

In the Monday night game in Canberra, as Todd Carney stepped the defence and scored his team's first try - he actually had a teammate push him and tail him over the line. While Carney did well to score a nice try, NRL these days see's a lot of softer stuff such as team mates pushing and driving in offence to help their own player make ground. Sure, they want to help the team in every play - but really, I would be embarrassed if a team mate had to help push me to gain metres? Imagine big Mark Geyer having Steve Carter PUSH him up the field? No way.

Take for example Anthony Watmough. A very talented player and an asset to Manly who pushes through the line well. Compare this to - Anthony Tupou who will smash, fend and bash his way through the defence and lay on an offload for a team mate. Always intense and exciting and much preferred by the NRL faithful.

Well in Round 5 it seems we may have unearthed a player with the bash and barge of yesteryear. Surely it has to be the Tigers new boy Taniela Tuiaki. His run in the second half taking it up the outside and beating 4 or 5 defenders was inspirational. He was like the incredible hulk as he fended half the Cronulla team off like rag dolls. The roar from the 17,500 Campbelltown fans was proof of its popularity, the way this guy is going - they'll need an ambulance to cleanup the aftermath of one of his runs. I didn't expect half the Cronulla team to get up after they were flattened by the runaway train.

Another example is the exciting backs, such as Bowen or Wade McKinnon - these guys have pure speed and quick stepping talent and regularly beat their defenders. When you compare to a Nathan Hindmarsh bash and barge line break, Piggy or Sonny Bill Williams - the heavy, intensive stuff gets the juices of NRL followers flowing.

Guys built like Mack Trucks, Shane Webcke - simply irreplaceable - his loss is being heavily felt by the Broncos as they battle away at the NRL cellar in 2007. And love him or hate him - on his day big Willie Mason has the ability to run over the top of opposite players like a steam roller.

So while the backs are pretty to watch and get the accolades, we all know "the forwards have to lay the platform " so the bacline can look slick.

Imagine being a player, you have the ball in your hand ready to attack, you look up and two metres in front of you is Rueben Wiki charging at you to take yo down, he has steam coming out of his ears and looks like a wild animal. This is the difference between beautiful backs and heavy hitting forwards. The fear factor!

Now I'd be thinking about staying alive , rather take my chances with a beast such as Wiki.

As we make rule changes and try our best to keep the game clean, exciting and fair - we must never forgot - the game cannot be without 'Brute Strength'

	Team	P	W	D	L	B	For	Agn	Pts	Diff
1	Sea Eagles	5	5	0	0	0	110	46	10	+64
2	Storm	5	5	0	0	0	126	66	10	+60
3	Cowboys	5	4	0	1	0	127	98	8	+29
4	Warriors	5	3	0	2	0	114	89	6	+25
5	Rabbitohs	5	3	0	2	0	107	85	6	+22
6	Eels	5	3	0	2	0	111	105	6	+6
7	Gold Coast	5	3	0	2	0	94	96	6	-2
8	Knights	5	3	0	2	0	94	128	6	-34
9	Sharks	5	2	0	3	0	102	62	4	+40
10	Bulldogs	5	2	0	3	0	104	97	4	+7
11	Panthers	5	2	0	3	0	105	107	4	-2
12	Raiders	5	2	0	3	0	113	148	4	-35
13	Broncos	5	1	0	4	0	106	114	2	-8
14	Tigers	5	1	0	4	0	82	96	2	-14
15	Dragons	5	1	0	4	0	64	120	2	-56
16	Roosters	5	0	0	5	0	58	160	0	-102

Titans upset fancied Panthers at CUA

The Gold Coast Titans have grabbed their second win in the NRL with a hard fought 24-22 win over Penrith at CUA Stadium, Penrith this afternoon.

The Titans had to dig extremely deep to fend off a once again fast finishing Panthers outfit.

The Titans, who scored their maiden triumph in round two against Cronulla, recorded four tries against the Panthers, who scored as many while falling to their second defeat of the season.

The visitors crossed for tries through Anthony Laffranchi, Preston Campbell, Scott Prince and Luke Bailey, while Campbell added three conversions and a penalty goal in his first appearance against his former team-mates.

The home side found the tryline via Rhys Wesser, Michael Gordon and Frank Pritchard (2) with Gordon kicking three conversions.

The Titans were cruising midway through the second half when Bailey's converted try saw them stretch out to a 24-6 lead.

However, the Panthers refused to give up and the converted tries to Gordon and Pritchard closed the gap on the scoreboard to just two points with less than a minute to play.

The Panthers tried desperately to find a match-winning try from the subsequent kick-off but the ticking clock and a knock-on saw them fall short.

Both sides will back up on Friday night with the Panthers facing off against Parramatta at home and the Titans meeting Brisbane in their first local derby at Lang Park.

Gold Coast 24 (A Laffranchi, P Campbell, S Prince, L Bailey tries; P Campbell 2 conversions, 1 penalty)

Penrith 22 (F Pritchard (2), R Wesser, M Gordon tries; M Gordon 3 conversions)

The North Queensland Cowboys have continued their unbeaten start to the competition with a last minute 25-24 victory over a gallant Wests Tigers side in Townsville tonight. The Tigers took an early lead through a Daniel Fitzhenry try and looked strong throughout the first half as the Cowboys displayed some uncharacteristic errors and struggled against the determined Tigers defence.

A penalty and a soft try to Robbie Farah opened up a 14-0 lead to the visitors just before halftime, but the Cowboys hit back through Ashley Graham to trail by only 8 points at the break. The momentum in the second half swung wildly as both teams produced some flashes of brilliance, but when Paul Whatuira crossed for the Tigers to open up a 12 point lead with 20 minutes to go it looked like the Tigers would finish off the match strongly.

But someone forgot to tell the Cowboys – an intercept try to Ashley Graham brought the Cowboys back to within 6 points and then it became the Bowen & Thurston show, with plenty of half-breaks and chances to put the Tigers well and truly on the back foot. Matt Bowen then produced two amazing plays to snatch the victory from right under the noses of the Tigers; his 74th minute try to level the scores came from a magical run right through the heart of the Tigers defence, and his 80th minute field goal capped off an incredible night for the Cowboys custodian.

The Tigers had one final chance to score but couldn’t reclaim the lead that they’d held for 70 minutes of the match. The Tigers effort was outstanding and would have brought a victory at almost any other venue tonight. Benji Marshall produced some vintage form and was well supported by Brett Hodgson, Robbie Farah and Chris Heighington.

On the downside, Todd Payten could be in for a judiciary appearance following a high shot on Paul Bowman late in the game. The Cowboys were best served by their usual suspects – Jason Smith, Matt Bowen and Johnathan Thurston.

The loss of Luke O’Donnell midway through the first half with a serious injury could have been a cruel blow to an already-weakened forward pack, but Jeremy Smith and Ray Cashmere put in some strong efforts to fill the void.