It was another big Saturday of NRL action with Gold Coast downing the Warriors, before Cronulla snuck home over Parramatta and North Queensland opened their account for 2022 with a win over Canberra.
Check out all the scores, stats and everything you need to know about each match below.
Sharks 18 def Eels 16
Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon lauded his side's toughness as they celebrated their return to PointsBet Stadium with a dramatic 79th-minute try from Teig Wilton sealing a 18-16 NRL win over Parramatta.
Saturday's game was Cronulla's first at home in over two years and doubled as Fitzgibbon's debut as Sharks coach after he missed last week's loss to Canberra with COVID-19.
Cronulla's lack of discipline and halfback Nicho Hynes' inaccuracy with the boot (one from four attempts) nearly cost them until Wilton burrowed over in the last minute and Hynes converted when it mattered most.
"We did it the hard way," Fitzgibbon said with a smile.
"I was proud of the way we played. That was a high quality game in my opinion.
"They (Parramatta) are a serious footy team and they kept coming and we probably hurt ourselves.
"To keep hanging in, I felt like we just needed some opportunities and when we got them we did enough."
In a game in which the lead changed five times, the Sharks began brightly when wingers Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa scored on either flank in the opening half hour.
Unfortunately for Cronulla, Hynes was unable to convert either Sharks tries and Parramatta cut the deficit to 8-6 when Mitchell Moses scored on the stroke of halftime.
With nothing much happening, Moses took advantage of a flat-footed Cronulla defensive line and chipped over the top.
Eels skipper Clint Gutherson tapped the ball inside to five-eighth Dylan Brown who sent it onto Moses to touch down under heavy pressure from Jesse Ramien.
Moses appeared to be struggling with a thigh complaint and Gutherson converted the try before adding a penalty in front of the sticks early in the second half when Wilton tackled Ray Stone off the ball.
Wilton's ill-discipline again allowed Parramatta back into the game when he illegally tackled Moses in the air while kicking with Gutherson notching the ensuing penalty.
Fitzgibbon brought new recruit Cameron McInnes into the fray to a large cheer from the crowd of 11,459.
His introduction seemed to be the spark the Sharks needed, with Hynes setting Connor Tracey up to score with 20 minutes to go.
Any optimism seemed short-lived when Reed Mahoney scored to put the Eels ahead with 15 minutes to go before Cronulla's Braden Hamlin-Uele dropped the ball over the line.
But then Wilton steamed onto a Matt Moylan pass and scored his late try, converted by Hynes, to send the home supporters into a frenzy.
"We did enough to win the game but we've got to close that out," Eels coach Brad Arthur said.
"I didn't feel like we matched them physically and played sideways.
"We've got to start physically and grind instead of looking for all out footy."
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Team stats
Cowboys 26 def Raiders 6
North Queensland skipper Jason Taumalolo has done his talking on the field as the Cowboys bounced back with a comprehensive 26-6 NRL victory over Canberra.
Three unanswered tries in the second half to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Kyle Feldt and Jeremiah Nanai propelled the hosts to victory as the error-strewn Raiders struggled to compete in Townsville on Saturday night.
It was a great response by Todd Payten's side after their miserable 6-4 first-round loss to the Bulldogs.
And it was led by Taumalolo — the subject of much speculation about his relationship with Payten during the week — who rampaged through the middle on his way to 141 running metres and two tackle busts.
The only blight on their performance was losing edge forward Mitch Dunn to a suspected ACL injury when he went down without contact in the first half.
Canberra completed just 61 per cent of their sets as the Cowboys suffocated the Raiders on defence and and dominated possession, gaining easy metres up the middle.
That issue was highlighted in the 55th minute, when Feldt's kick return got the Cowboys valuable metres out from his own line as his side went the length of the field in their set.
On the fifth tackle Chad Townsend kicked to the left edge and Tabuai-Fidow soared over his opposite number to gather and break free, contorting through Hudson Young's tackle to reach out and score.
The Cowboys were soon in again when Jake Granville's sloppy dummy half pass hit the deck and Peta Hiku had the presence of mind to kick the ball through and it sat up perfectly for Feldt to score his first try of the season.
Tom Dearden's high kick on the next set then found a flying Nanai, with the 19-year-old leaping to gather and score under the posts to ice the game with eight minutes to play.
In the opening stanza, North Queensland were first to strike in the sixth minute making the Raiders pay for errors in their own half.
Dearden swung left and his skip-pass found Murray Taulagi who kept the ball out in his left hand and tipped-toed along the sideline whilst fending to score.
After only scoring four points in round one, the message was clear in North Queensland's camp to take any points on offer, and they did twice with Valentine Holmes kicking two penalties to keep the scoreboard ticking.
But in the 31st minute the Raiders found a crack in the Cowboys' defensive line as Corey Harawira-Naera fought through four tacklers near the line to score before converting his own try.
The Cowboys led 8-6 at halftime.
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Team stats
Titans 20 def Warriors 18
Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook believes his team has discovered the resilience to hang tough in NRL matches after Saturday's 20-18 win over the Warriors.
The Titans were under a mountain of pressure at CBUS Super Stadium but denied the Warriors points in the second-half to secure their first win of the season after last week's four-point loss to Parramatta.
Winger Greg Marzhew's first-half double had put the home side into a commanding 16-6 lead before the Warriors scored two late tries — including a controversial four-pointer awarded to winger Adam Pompey after the siren by the bunker — to snatch an 18-16 lead at the break.
AJ Brimson's second try assist in his first game as a full time NRL five-eighth allowed Phillip Sami to get the Titans' back in front in the 57th minute.
The visitors then poured forward but a combination of Titans' defence and some crucial errors including two dropped balls when the tryline beckoned denied Nathan Brown's team.
"I don't think we won a tight game last year so I think it's great and a credit to, in particular, our forwards, through the pre-season to get themselves in a better spot to be able to work harder," he said.
"That's what we need. That willingness to defend."
In a match that had been billed as the return of Brimson versus ex-Titan Ash Taylor in his first appearance for the Warriors, it was the Gold Coast No.6 who had an immediate impact.
Brimson's opening-minute line break allowed Beau Fermor to score after just 40 seconds and while Taylor's grubber led to Pompey's controversial try, it was the Titans' five-eighth whose bullet pass to Sami secured the win.
"It was great to have AJ back," Holbrook said.
"That's what the whole team's been witnessing all pre-season, just AJ being fantastic and everything.
"To have him back is a huge bonus for us."
Warriors coach Brown was left disappointed by his team's inability to finish off their attacking moves as they slipped to a 0-2 start.
"Not good enough if you want to win games. We're way past trying to develop players, we want to win bloody games of footy and that's just not acceptable," he said.
"We had two young outside backs drop the ball on the line … just purely and simply because they just didn't get deep enough.
"Again, not acceptable. Not now where we want to be as a football club."
The Warriors lost forward Matt Lodge after just 21 minutes in his return from suspension due to illness while Gold Coast front-rower Isaac Liu came off late for a HIA.
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