2010 | NRL Second Qualifying Final|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Date | 11 September 2010 | ||||||||||||
Stadium | Sydney Football Stadium | ||||||||||||
Location | Sydney, NSW, Australia | ||||||||||||
Referees | Shayne Hayne, Matt Cecchin | ||||||||||||
Attendance | 33,315 | ||||||||||||
Broadcast partners | |||||||||||||
Broadcasters | |||||||||||||
Commentators | |||||||||||||
The 2010 NRL season consisted of 26 weekly regular season rounds, starting on 12 March and ending on 5 September, followed by four weeks of play-offs culminating in the grand final on 3 October.
The 2010 NRL Second Qualifying Final was a rugby league match contested between the Wests Tigers and Sydney Roosters in the first week of the 2010 NRL finals series on 11 September 2010. The match is notable as it was the first finals match to be played under the golden point rule since it was introduced in 2003. The match was hailed as "one of the greatest matches in recent memory".
Both the Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers had qualified for the NRL finals series, held annually during September of every NRL season, after varying absences: the Roosters had finished last in 2009 after reaching the finals in 2008, whilst the Tigers had not reached the finals since winning the premiership in 2005. The Tigers recorded their best ever regular season by winning 15 of its 24 matches and finishing third on the ladder, both surpassing the previous records set in 2005, whilst the Roosters won 14 of their 24 matches to finish sixth at the end of the regular season.
The McIntyre Final Eight System, which was in place at the time, meant that the two teams were to be drawn against each other in the first week of the finals. The Roosters had won both of their meetings in the regular season, by 12 points in Round 2 and by four points in Round 8.
The Tigers had three chances, through Gareth Ellis, to score the first try of the match within the first 13 minutes, however, on each occasion, he was denied: first after Todd Carney had dislodged the ball from his hands, the second after he was held up over the line by some desperate Roosters defence, and the third after Benji Marshall was penalised for an off-the-ball incident with Mitchell Pearce. They were, however, the most dominant team of the first half, scoring two tries, through Lote Tuqiri and Beau Ryan, to the Roosters' sole penalty goal (kicked by Carney), and taking a 10–2 lead into half-time.