Young Sharks halfback strikes gold to sink Newcastle
Margie McDonald |
Cronulla halfback Chantay Kiria-Ratu emerged as the Sharks’ heroine with two game-changing kicks to land a 19-18 win over Newcastle and secure third spot on the NRLW ladder.
The 20-year-old slotted a conversion in the 69th minute at Sharks Stadium on Sunday to send the match into golden point, then kicked a field goal from 22 metres out in the first minute of extra time to have the home fans into raptures.
“For young Chantay to kick the field goal at her age, and she was very cool about it, I’m just so proud of her,” said Sharks coach Tony Herman.
In the second game on Sunday, the Broncos used their 60 per cent possession against the Bulldogs at Totally Workwear Stadium to collect nine tries in a 44-0 whitewash.
Broncos fullback Tamika Upton ran in four tries to put her level with Warriors centre-winger Payton Takimoana on 13 as the NRLW’s leading try-scorers.
A high error rate hurt the Sharks, and they trailed 18-4 with just 10 minutes to play.
But late tries to winger Georgia Ravics and lock Brook Anderson gave the NRLW its second golden-point finish of the weekend after the Raiders’ 17-16 victory over Wests Tigers on Saturday.
Captain Tiana Penitani Gray said the Sharks’ performance until the 60th minute had been the complete opposite of how they were supposed to execute the game plan.
“The message came down from the (coaches’) box from Tony (Herman) to just have a crack,” she said.
“We felt we had the momentum even though we’d been our own worst enemy in moments by dropping the ball, giving away penalties, not completing sets.
“We don’t want to be a second-half team. We want to start the game well, and that’s something we really need to focus on moving into the next couple of weeks.”
The Sharks leap-frogged the Cowboys into third place on the ladder with two rounds left.
Newcastle remain fifth, despite clocking off in Sunday’s game after winger Lilly-Ann White scored a hat-trick to put her team 14 points clear.
“I feel like maybe a couple of girls thought we were just going to win … we just stopped playing a bit too early,” Knights skipper Yasmin Clydsdale said.
It was Newcastle’s third loss in a row after enjoying five wins from six games to start the season.
“We should have closed that game out big-time. There’s not much I can say … everyone is pretty shattered in the dressing room,” coach Ben Jefferies said.
The Bulldogs will need to recover quickly from the hiding the Broncos handed out when they face the Sharks next Saturday.
Broncos second-rower Romy Teitzel is continuing her mortgage on the stats charts, her four conversions on Sunday putting her at 86 points to lead the competition.
She also leads the all-time points by an individual in an NRLW season, eclipsing her Broncos teammate Ali Brigginshaw (84), who set the previous record in 2023.
In Sunday’s late match, Titans halves Lauren Brown and Taliah Fuimaono helped deliver a 26-10 win over the Eels to shore up a top-six finals spot.
The Titans are now in sixth place on nine competition points, three clear of four clubs on six – the Warriors, Dragons, Raiders and Eels – with two rounds left.
Fuimaono showed off her creativity and scored a try, her efforts combining with Brown’s kicking game to keep the Gold Coast’s noses in front, consolidating a 20-4 halftime lead into a 16-point win.
Another star of the Titans’ fourth win this season was 18-year-old rookie winger Phoenix-Raine Hippi, who notched a double in just her fourth game of rugby league.
AAP
