Magic Round

The Roosters have found form over the past fortnight after an up-and-down start to the season and will have taken plenty of confidence from holding the Warriors scoreless last week, with their goal-line defence and ability to soak up prolonged periods without the ball standing out in the 14-0 win. 

The Cowboys did neither of those things well against the in-form Sharks last week and have been further rocked by suspension and injury ahead of their trip to Suncorp Stadium.

Melbourne were the last team to beat South Sydney back in Round 5, and since then Jason Demetriou's side have shown themselves to be arguably the competition's form team with consecutive wins over the Bulldogs, Dolphins, Panthers and Broncos. 

With Campbell Graham scoring tries for fun and Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell firing, the Rabbitohs are a scary prospect with ball in hand, while in defence they have given up more than 18 points to an opponent just once all year. 

The Sharks are 5-3 for the season and sitting a comfortable second on the ladder but face no easy task against a Dolphins side who will be doing everything in their power to hand coach Wayne Bennett a night to remember on his 900th match as a first-grade rugby league coach.

Attack has been a strength for the Sharks from the get-go this season, leading the competition in points scored, linebreaks and try assists, but it was their improvement in defence which impress coach Craig Fitzgibbon most with in his side's 44-6 victory last Thursday.

The last time the Cowboys won five in a row was early in 2016, in the midst of a golden era for the club which included their maiden premiership in 2015 and a grand final appearance in 2017.

The game opened in spectacular fashion with Murray Taulagi setting up a try for Scott Drinkwater with an outrageous flick pass as he was being bundled over the sidelined before Wests Tigers debutant Junior Tupou flew high to snare a Jackson Hastings bomb to score the first try of his career.

Walker scored a brilliant solo try and landed four goals and a field goal while Suaalii grabbed a double as Trent Robinson's men chalked up their sixth win of the season.

The Roosters made the perfect start when veteran big man Jared Waerea-Hargreaves threw a dummy and bamboozled Reagan Campbell-Gillard before carrying Reed Mahoney over the line to score in the fourth minute.

Cronulla started the match creatively with a short kick-off working in their favour, but it was all one-way traffic against them after that as the Raiders raced to a 20-0 lead.

The Sharks got back into the game with two second half tries but the Raiders lifted in defence with some spirited efforts. 

Making the Raiders performance more impressive, Ricky Stuart's side were forced to defend their line for 30 minutes with 11-12 men after Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Corey Horsburgh were sin-binned for professional fouls.

The final match of the special event wraps up round 10 with the Cowboys looking to extend their winning run against a Wests Tigers side that have taken a few steps backwards in recent weeks after putting two wins together.

The joint venture, however, enjoy Magic Round more than their opponents.

They've beaten the Knights and Panthers in the past two concepts and despite the Cowboys well-placed on the ladder, the Tigers have shown they can spring an upset. 

The Tricolours, fresh off a big 44-16 win over the Titans, are about to enter an interesting four-week block that includes matches against the Eels, Sharks, Panthers and Raiders (away and without Origin stars). 

Roosters coach Trent Robinson has urged patience over his star-studded side and their attack. They delivered in spades to score eight in Mackay.

However, they face no tougher ask in the NRL at the moment than the Eels, who have upset the Panthers and Storm this year in big matches.

The clash of the co-competition leaders had been billed as the match of the season but Melbourne lost Kiwis halfback Jahrome Hughes before kick off with a calf injury.

With star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen and strike centre Reimis Smith already out their attack was stifled.

Rookies Cooper Johns and Tyran Wishart were called up to replace Hughes and Papenhuyzen, but the sons of former Kangaroos, Matt Johns and Rod Wishart, had a tough night as Penrith roared to their ninth win of the season.

Little separated the two teams in a gripping contest but after it looked like St George Illawarra were finishing the strongest, Gold Coast prop Jarrod Wallace crashed over for a try to force the game to extra time and Isaako scored the match winner.