Auckland 9's

[TITAN PETE]

Game 12
Warriors 25-4 over Manly

[TITAN PETE]

Game 13
Cowboys 24-0 over the Raiders, go Ricky

[Titanic]

He must be able to talk himself up well because he has a coaching resume like a bottled fart.

[TITAN PETE]

Game 14



STORM 18 RABBITOHS 12

A fumble from Dylan Walker proved the difference in a match that saw both sides cross three times. With Souths trailing 11-8, Walker dropped a pass 10 metres from his line that was swooped on by Mahe Fonua for the crucial try.

[DIEHARD]

Ricky Stuart is amazing. Amazing at maintaining a myth.

[DIEHARD]

Sceptical NRL CEO’s left to eat humble pie after the success of the inaugural Nines tournament

WHEN the NRL first called for a show of hands from the 16 club CEOs on the Auckland Nines, just six arms were raised.

That was in late 2012. Just over a year later many of the same dissenters were watching history unfold in Auckland, eating humble pie in corporate boxes at a heaving Eden Park.

If Dave Smith wanted a blueprint of how to evolve rugby league, he should ditch the E-Squared formula and circulate the carnival-like concourses of this venue.

What he would discover is an atmosphere entirely divorced from the average NRL fixture, let alone tumbleweed-strewn trials.

Think a raunchy Halloween shindig crossed with the decadence of Cup Day at Flemington. Without any prompting, New Zealanders and the 7,000 visitors from across the ditch turned the tournament’s inaugural day into a intoxicating dress-up party for the young and the beautiful.

This was rugby league as we’ve never seen it before, dressed in every costume imaginable: Native Indians, naughty schoolgirls, and non-compliant nuns.

Accustomed to the relatively rigid atmosphere at competition games, club officials were astounded. Given the fact all 92,000 tickets were pre-sold months before this weekend, it’s hard to appreciate the previous scepticism.

Much of the resistance was based on the NRL having to split profits with the concept’s creator and promoter, Duco Events. That spelled less money for the game, and, therefore, the clubs.

The problem was Duco had the relationship with Auckland City Council, whose $12 million investment over the next five years was indispensable. Realising they were up against some of the most powerful and long-serving administrators in the game, Duco bosses David Higgins and Dean Lonergan personally wooed the clubs for months until a second vote was taken midway through last year.

This time 14 hands were raised. Judging by yesterday’s extraordinary scenes, rugby league folklore will speak kindly of that day.

Even before the Sharks and Knights kicked-off, much of the talk in New Zealand centred how this event would measure-up against last weekend’s annual rugby union sevens tournament in Wellington. That event had been running successfully for 15 years, but, in a godsend for league lovers, the latest edition was it’s most shameful.

A total of 270 people were ejected from Westpac Stadium, reducing an already disappointing turn-out of less than 30,000 over two days. Lonergan believes the poor attendance was due to the Auckland Nines, but he nonetheless took lessons from the rival code’s woes.

Patrons at Eden Park were limited to two drinks each, rather than the standard four. The precaution led to massive queues at every bar, but none of the drinkers seemed unhappy as they compared costumes or exchanged phone numbers.

The stand-out feature of those in line was not their extravagant dress. It was their age. In recent years, older faces have started to dominate NRL crowds and females are still comfortably in the minority.

But in Auckland yesterday the stands boasted an equal gender split. Better still, they were awash with a Gen Y flavour more commonly associated with an outdoor music festival.

Out with the old, in with the new.

[TITAN PETE]

GAME 16

PANTHERS 23 DRAGONS 8

The younger brother of Michael Jennings and a Fijian flyer were the stars of the Panthers’ big win over the Dragons. George Jennings and Etonia Nabuli each scored two tries as the Panthers all but ended the Dragons’ hopes of a quarter-final.

[TITAN PETE]

Cowboys eye Warriors upset
By Tony Webeck
NRL.com
6:30pm Sat 15th February, 2014


North Queensland half Robert Lui saw first-hand how the Warriors brought the massive Eden Park crowd to life on day one of the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines but believes the Cowboys have the team to upset the hometown favourites.

The Warriors, Panthers and Eels are the only undefeated teams after an energetic and frantic first day with the capacity crowd going into raptures with every touch of the football by local heroes Shaun Johnson and Sam Tomkins.

Johnson was as electrifying as pundits had predicted in the lead-up and the Warriors were able to confirm their pre-tournament favouritism with a 25-14 win over the Raiders followed by a 25-4 drubbing of the Sea Eagles.

The Cowboys played both of their matches – a 17-8 loss to the Cowboys and a 24-0 shutout of the Raiders – in the immediate aftermath of the Warriors' scoring frenzies but Lui is confident the Cowboys have the cattle to quiet the fun-loving Warriors faithful.

"They come to life [when the Warriors play] but we'll try to spoil the party," Lui told NRL.com. "We'll do our best. We've got the team I reckon that can beat them but it could go any way. We've just got to stick with them and hopefully that can take care of the crowd.

"We were always after the Warriors and they get a big crowd and when we were warming up we tended to watch.

"We had a good look at them, they've got talent all around the park and they're big and fast. With their two halves, we've got to turn up tomorrow like we did for the last game and hopefully it will be a good game."

Warriors powerhouse Konrad Hurrell was a constant threat and admitted that his side had spoken about the expectations from the local crowd to deliver in their latest showpiece event.

"We've talked about that before, that there's a lot of pressure there," Hurrell said.

"The other teams have put in their good teams as well so there was a lot of pressure on us but I'm glad we did our work today and won both games and glad that we made the crowd happy."

Knights half Tyrone Roberts had the honour of scoring the opening try of the tournament but it was the Sharks who registered the first victory, Nathan Gardner scoring in the dying seconds to secure a 12-11 win.

From there it was a constant procession of spectacular tries, exhilarating pieces of play and desperate defence as all 16 teams came to grips with the new format.

Brad Fittler brought down Ben Barba in defence and then brought the crowd to its feet with a runaway intercept try that sparked the Roosters to a win over the fancied Broncos team while Steve Menzies showed that he can still contribute at the elite level.

The Eels gave their fans cause to believe that the future is brighter under Brad Arthur with wins over the Roosters – NRL CEO Dave Smith's favourite moment of the day – and Bulldogs that sees them on top of Pool Green ahead of the Broncos and Roosters.

The Cowboys and Sea Eagles are striving to equal the Warriors with two wins after a mixed opening day while the Panthers are perfectly placed to top Pool Red with victories over the Storm and Dragons, a clash with the Rabbitohs all that stands between them and the No.1 seed for the quarter-finals.

Pool Blue – dubbed the 'group of death' prior to the tournament – lived up to its billing with all four teams registering one win and one loss with the two winners from Sunday's final pool games to progress to the quarter-finals.

Amidst all the excitement and colour there were some sour moments with a suspected ACL injury to Cowboys fullback Lachlan Coote the most serious to come from day one.

Sharks five-eighth Todd Carney is not expected to play any further part in the tournament with a hamstring injury, Dave Taylor will be assessed by Titans medical staff for a corked knee in the morning while Michael Chee Kam (Sea Eagles), Isaac Liu (Roosters) and Curtis Sironen (Wests Tigers) will be absent from their sides for day two.

[TITAN PETE]

Tuqiri backs Nines games push
By Tony Webeck
NRL.com
5:40pm Sat 15th February, 2014



Australian representative Lote Tuqiri believes steps to include rugby league nines in the Commonwealth Games from as early as 2018 will help to keep the game's brightest stars from switching codes.

Tuqiri played sevens rugby for Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and was excited to hear of the developments that will see a Nines tournament involving nine international teams – including Australia and New Zealand – played as an exhibition event on June 27-28 prior to the 2014 Games at Glasgow.

The announcement of an under-19s event was made on the morning of the kick-off to the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines with a view to possibly becoming a medal event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast.

Tuqiri's Australian team failed to win a medal at the 2006 Games but he believes such an opportunity will help in making the international exposure offered by rugby union less enticing to rugby league's brightest stars.

"I didn't know that but I think that would be awesome," Tuqiri said when told of the exhibition event. "I had the opportunity to play in 2006 in Melbourne and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life.

"That's certainly an avenue to keep players in the game but at the end of the day – I'm not going to lie – people stay in the game for money, that's the honest truth."

Effusive in his praise for the opening day of the tournament but aware that there was still improvements that can be made, NRL CEO Dave Smith welcomed the news of the Commonwealth Games initiative as the next phase of the game's expansion.

"If you look at what's happened today, the spectacle, a lot of people would stand up and take notice of that," Smith said.

"I think the Commonwealth Games is a good place to go. That's the under-19s and part of the festival before the Commonwealth Games so I think that's the starting place.

"You look at the way the game is played, the sheer entertainment... Much better than sevens, close enough to the main game, it's been fantastic."

Some of the NRL's brightest young talents also expressed excitement at possibly representing their country with dreams of Commonwealth gold.

"It's very exciting. You always grow up watching the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games and it's exciting to be on that stage," said 19-year-old South Sydney centre Dylan Walker.

"We'll just have to wait and see. It will be exciting if that happens. I know a lot of young blokes love this sort of game (nines) because there's open space and you can roam around and play a bit of footy."
Twenty-two-year-old Broncos centre Dale Copley scored a try in his side's first-up win over the Bulldogs and believes the nines format is the perfect platform to take the game to the world stage.

"Obviously it's a positive for rugby league if we're getting exposure on the world stage and getting hosted at an event like that," Copley said.

"It's only new now and we don't really know where it's going to go but it's obviously very exciting and the fans over here have jumped on it and ran with it. If it gets to the Commonwealth Games that would be unreal for the sport and it will give us a bit more exposure worldwide."

[TITAN PETE]

Nines injury could end Coote's season
By James MacSmith
AAP
6:45pm Sat 15th February, 2014


North Queensland fullback Lachlan Coote faces a season on the sidelines after suffering a suspected ACL tear at the NRL Nines in Auckland on Saturday.

Coote was one of a series of injuries on the opening day of the sold out Eden Park event.

Wests Tigers confirmed utility Curtis Sironen will miss six weeks after scans revealed a fracture in his right foot.

Sironen suffered the injury early in the first half of the Tigers' win over Cronulla.

Sharks playmaker Todd Carney (hamstring) and Sydney Roosters prop Isaac Liu (knee) will play no further role in the tournament, while Gold Coast back-rower Dave Taylor (knee) is struggling to be fit for the final day on Sunday.

But it is Coote who suffered the cruellest of fates. He limped off in the seventh minute of the Cowboys match against Manly early in the day, clutching his knee after being brought down after a long run.

The former Penrith fullback was taken to hospital with scans, with Cowboys officials fearing the worst - a season ending injury.

"He is one of our key signings and for him personally, he tore his pec last season, if this is a season ending injury it is tragic," new Cowboys coach Paul Green said.

Coote was picked up this season by the Cowboys as a replacement for club legend Matt Bowen, after missing much of last season at Penrith due to a pectoral muscle injury.

The injury overshadowed what was largely a successful day for the NRL before around 46,000 fans in ideal conditions for rugby league.

The hometown Warriors lived up to their status as pre-tournament favourites to enjoy wins over Canberra and Manly to stamp themselves as the team to beat.

Canterbury, Canberra and St George Illawarra can't progress to the final stages of the tournament after losing both of their pool games.

The Warriors, with Shaun Johnson and Sam Tomkins dominating, Penrith and Parramatta remain undefeated.

Chief executive Dave Smith said the NRL was overjoyed at how the event had been received.

"The day has been a great success," Smith said.

"It has been a great atmosphere, it has been a great spectacle and the football has been amazing."

Smith nominated NRL wooden spooners Parramatta's first-up win over premiers Sydney Roosters as his highlight of the day.

The Warriors created the greatest interest and support while comeback king Brad Fittler created one of the more memorable moments of the day, scoring a 55m try in Sydney Roosters win over Brisbane that kept them in the competition.

The Nines continues on Sunday with each team's last pool game followed by the finals.

[TITAN PETE]

Fittler and Menzies thrive at Nines

NRL.com
7:30pm Sat 15th February, 2014



Putting paid to suggestions their participation made a mockery of the tournament, retired NRL players Brad Fittler and Steve Menzies performed admirably on the opening day of the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines.

While Fittler's 70-metre intercept try stole the show, the 42-year-old didn't look at all out of place, putting his body on the line tackling Eels battering ram Fuifui Moimoi and later in the day cleaning up a dangerous Ben Barba as he threatened to run into space.

The one-on-one hit on Barba was solid but penalised for being too high, much to Fittler's bemusement.

"Can you believe that was a penalty?" he exclaimed to reporters after the game.

"I'm going to have a word to them later, the refs. What chance did I have? But I knew I had support on my inside so it might have looked like a great tackle but it wasn't that tough."

Fittler also produced some slick passes and was one of the best on field in the Roosters' second up 14-7 win over Brisbane.

Fittler said the body was holding up ok, aside from a sore hip that he hinted may have been the result of one of his tackles on Moimoi.

"I felt better running out than I do walking back in, don't worry!" he laughed.

He also revealed the intercept was far from a fluke - and possibly a direct result of an unwillingness to tackle Sonny Bill Williams at training.

"They defend a bit different now. At training I was taking a lot of intercepts because I didn't want to tackle Sonny," he said.

"They all knew I was going to take an intercept it was a matter of when."

He also had a friendly dig at the man unfortunate enough to throw the intercept pass, Broncos forward David Stagg.

"David Stagg mate, what's he ball-playing for anyway?" Fittler laughed. "I knew I was going to pick someone off, I left it to 'Staggy'."

Forty-year-old Menzies also didn't look out of place in getting through a fair bit of tackling, and was very welcoming of the Nines concept.

"It was good fun and to play in front of a crowd like this was pretty amazing," Menzies said.

"I think it's a good concept, hopefully it takes off. It's got the right mix, enough tries but defence is there and you can definitely defend a couple of sets of six."

Both Fittler and Menzies said the players would get better at it in future years once they'd had a chance to practice it more and familiarise themselves with the style of play.

"I think it's fantastic, I think it's a great game," Fittler said.

"As teams practice a bit more they'll perfect it but the same things that win you NRL games win these games. As a concept, I can't give it a big enough rap."

He added that he'd consider playing again next year if he was fit but added: "I don't know if I'm locked in for tomorrow yet, I'm a bit dusty and I've got a bit of a hip thing.

"But it's awesome, I think every ex player should strive to come back and play a game."

[DIEHARD]

Brad Fittler, amazing. Intercept try!!!

Its hard to believe he went from player to coach to player!

[DIEHARD]

Just started to watch the Warriors v Manly.

Loving the crowd love, finally finally the TV network and league is putting some focus on the fans.

[TITAN PETE]

Brad Fittler, amazing. Intercept try!!!

Its hard to believe he went from player to coach to player!

Loved it & I think he quickly shut the knockers up with his performance

[DIEHARD]

Loved it & I think he quickly shut the knockers up with his performance

Im sure his colleagues in media will now find him impossible to deal with.