NRL Saturday: Tom Trbojevic scores on return as Manly spoil Canterbury’s rebuild

The first Saturday of the NRL season is in the books and Tom Trbojevic made every post a winner while Daly Cherry-Evans raced in his first career hattrick as Manly smashed Canterbury 31-6 to open their NRL season.

Later on, North Queensland held off a furious Canberra fightback to win 19-18 before South Sydney put together a statement performance in a 27-18 victory over Cronulla. 

Check out all the scores and stats below.

Manly Sea Eagles 31 def Canterbury Bulldogs 6

Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic have ensured new coach Anthony Seibold’s era at Manly got off to a winning start, starring in a 31-6 NRL defeat of Canterbury.

Playing in his first match since he dislocated his shoulder last May, Trbojevic scored one try and had a hand in two others as Manly controlled Saturday’s match at 4 Pines Park.

Cherry-Evans bagged a hat-trick of tries and kicked a field goal, while the Sea Eagles ended the seven-match losing streak that snuffed out their 2022 campaign after the Pride Jersey saga.

For new Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo, the loss highlighted concerns around his team’s pack with Luke Thompson and Tevita Pangai both missing through injury.

Team stats

Manly dominated the Bulldogs’ inexperienced pack through the middle, allowing them to spend the majority of the match on the front foot.

The game wasn’t without drama though, with the Sea Eagles scoring two tries while Kyle Flanagan was controversially sin-binned.

With scores locked at 6-6 shortly before half time, Flanagan was punished by the bunker for lightly pushing Trbojevic in pursuit of a grubber kick.

Manly then scored down Flanagan’s left edge minutes later, when Trbojevic and Kelma Tualagi put winger Reuben Garrick over untouched.

With Flanagan still off early in the second half, the Sea Eagles were then able to extend their lead to 12 when Cherry-Evans toed the ball ahead three times and dotted down after a Paul Alamoti error.

In reality though, Manly were the better team throughout.

They scored first when Trbojevic toed ahead a Cherry-Evans grubber kick, and the pair combined again in the second half for the halfback to score after a Taniela Paseka bust.

Trbojevic’s timing was still not perfect and at stages he stopped himself from breaking into full flight, but he got through unscathed after the $50,000 trip to the US to work on his problematic hamstrings.

Manly pulled the superstar fullback from the field with 16 minutes to play to protect him, but he returned moments later when Lachlan Croker suffered a concussion.

Cherry-Evans then iced the match with a 50-metre intercept for his third try, as Canterbury looked every bit a side with eight new faces from last year.

Matt Burton’s bombs were dangerous when on target, but he and Viliame Kikau both put kicks out on the full while another kick off from the five-eighth also went astray.

Kikau was well contained, with Max King the sole Bulldogs forward to exceed 80 run metres.

The Bulldogs’ one try came when hooker Reed Mahoney collected his own grubber kick off the posts and was ruled to have got the ball to ground without dropping it.

South Sydney Rabbitohs 27 def Cronulla Sharks 18

South Sydney have heaped more pain on Cronulla to open their 2023 NRL campaign with a stirring 27-18 victory over the Sharks at PointsBet Stadium.

Six months after ending Cronulla’s 2022 season with a 38-12 semi-final demolition job, the Rabbitohs returned to haunt a sellout Saturday night crowd in the Shire with a brave and bruising display in a pulsating encounter between two of the competition heavyweights.

Souths lost Tevita Tatola in the opening minute after the prop came off second best in a heavy head clash in the first hit-up of the match with Cronulla captain Dale Finucane.

Fellow middle man Jai Arrow didn’t see the first half out after succumbing to a hamstring injury while Rabbitohs fans breathed a huge sigh relief after superstar fullback Latrell Mitchell carried on after receiving lengthy treatment for a leg issue.

Thankfully for Souths fans, playmaker Lachlan Ilias came to the party with a rousing performance as the Sharks were unable to overcome the absence of injured Dally M Medallist Nicho Hynes.

Team stats

Hynes’ halfback replacement Braydon Trindall was close to Cronulla’s best but he couldn’t get the hosts home as the Sharks’ defeat was compounded by having Braden Hamlin-Uele and Wade Graham placed on report.

Graham, in particular, could be in strife for a high tackle on Oregon Kaufusi that prompted referee Todd Smith to tell the veteran back-rower: “you left the ground to make contact with the head” before banishing him to the sin bin.

Officials could have called the game off at halftime and fans of both sides probably would have been happy, having seen it all in a wild opening 40 minutes of ebbs and flows and the downright bizarre.

Fittingly, the score was locked up at 12-12 at the break after both teams crossed the line four times, but were only awarded two tries each.

Ilias denied Cronulla winger Ronaldo Mulitalo a try early with a miracle tackle eerily similar to George Gregan’s famous Bledisloe Cup save on Jeff Wilson almost 30 years ago.

A minute later, Ilias crossed himself down the other end to give the Rabbitohs the lead before Mulitalo produced his own defensive heroics to prevent Izaac Tu’itupou Thompson from scoring what seemed a certain try.

There was redemption for Trindall, too.

After his floating pass to put Sione Katoa in the right corner was ruled forward, Hynes’ playmaking deputy scored himself moments later in a rare play featuring five chipkicks and grubberkicks between Trindall and Sharks fullback Will Kennedy.

Then it was Keaon Koloamatangi’s turn to atone, with the Souths back-rower spilling the ball over the line, before making good with a four-pointer shortly after to put the Rabbitohs back in front.

But Trindall had the final say of the helter-skelter half, slotting a sideline conversion after Katao couldn’t be denied a second time seconds before the siren sounded.

But it was Souths’ second half as a double from Campbell Graham blew the game open before Teig Wilton bagged a late consolation try for the Sharks.

North Queensland Cowboys 19 def Canberra Raiders 18

A Chad Townsend field goal five minutes from fulltime has edged North Queensland past Canberra 19-18 in a see-sawing NRL round-one contest in Townsville.

With the clock ticking down, Harley Smith-Shields’ error on a short-side play gifted the Cowboys a scrum in midfield and on tackle four Townsend made no mistake from 20 metres to kick his side to a winning start in 2023.

Townsend’s kick salvaged a disastrous second half for the home side, who — after dominating the opening period — completely capitulated offensively and offered the resilient Raiders a way back into the contest.

Team stats

North Queensland had dominated the opening proceedings, playing with patience, confidence and spark to gain territory and possession.

That swagger quickly disappeared in the second half with consecutive errors within five minutes. The Raiders wrangled momentum with hard, straight running and short passing from contact to wear the Cowboys down.

Tom Starling made the most of a deflected kick to score Canberra’s second try in the 53rd minute before Kyle Feldt’s spilled ball off a short drop-out gifted Jack Wighton their third.

That made it three unanswered tries from the visitors, Jamal Fogarty nailing a sideline conversion to tie the game at 18-18 with 20 minutes remaining.

The players were out on their feet in the sticky Townsville conditions but it was the Cowboys who coped best in a manic finish to end Canberra’s four-year round-one winning streak.

It took North Queensland 15 minutes to open their 2023 scoring account after constant and sustained pressure on the Raiders’ try-line.

The Cowboys had 73 per cent possession through 15 minutes and 17 tackles inside the Raiders’ 20m zone.

Murray Taulagi grabbed North Queensland’s opener with a left-hand diving finish, before Scott Drinkwater added a second after a deft inside grubber kick by Townsend.