Young guns stand up as NRL pre-season kicks off in style

One blow-out, two draws, and five games decided by less than 10 points in the opening round of the NRL’s $100,000 Pre-season Challenge suggests rugby league fans are in for a terrific season in 2023.

With the inclusion of Super League champions St Helens, who will play NRL champions Penrith in the World Club Challenge at BlueBet Stadium next Saturday, all 17 clubs stepped out for the first time, many showcasing their young talent.

At the completion of round one, with a special scoring system for a win, line-breaks and offloads, two teams – the Sydney Roosters and Manly Sea Eagles – scored the maximum 15 points.

Four others – the Warriors, Bulldogs, Sharks, and St Helens – were tied on 14 points.

Clubs will turn the heat up a notch by including most of their stars for the second and final round this week as they finalise line-ups for the opening round of the 2023 NRL Premiership, which kicks off with Parramatta hosting the Melbourne Storm at CommBank Stadium on Thursday, March 2.

We saw some outstanding talent over the nine games, including a few new faces that may feature in NRL first grade at some stage this season.

Among the standouts were young Brisbane teammates Reece Walsh and Selwyn Cobbo, the latter nabbing a hat-trick in eight minutes to guide the Indigenous All-Stars to an exciting 28-24 win over the Maori All-Stars in Rotorua.

We saw Brandon Smith debut for the Roosters in their 32-24 win over his former club Melbourne, and we saw the Dolphins make their NRL debut with a thrilling draw with the North Queensland Cowboys after looking at a historic victory leading 22-18 into the final minute.

And the round closed with probably the best match of the lot with the Gold Coast Titans getting off the canvas to snatch a 24-all draw against the Brisbane Broncos, who looked very good in the first half to lead 24-6 at halftime.

It wasn’t so good, however, for four teams who failed to collect a single point, which means they not only lost, but they couldn’t complete the required 10 offloads or line-breaks to secure even a bonus point.

Included in the four were last year’s beaten grand finalists, Parramatta, along with fellow top-eight finishers Canberra.

The other two clubs which failed to get a point were St George Illawarra and 2022 wooden-spoon holders Wests Tigers, who were handed a 48-12 hammering by the Warriors.

Pre-season Challenge co-leaders Manly and Sydney have drawn to clash this week in Gosford on Friday night before Brisbane tackle traditional rivals North Queensland in a classic encounter on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday night.

The highlight of the pre-season, however, will be Australian champions Penrith locking horns with English champs St Helens for the title of the best club team in the world.

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