Jersey Flegg Cup Finals Week Two - reports, highlights, news

Kristy Harris

A roaring crowd at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday morning were treated to a nail-biter of a Semi-Final in Canterbury Cup NSW, with fans jumping out of their seats after South Sydney Rabbitohs defeated the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 36-31 in the final minute of extra-time.

With two seconds left on the clock in regular time, the Sharks started celebrating after taking a cross-kick from the opposition dead but a penalty after the siren saw Souths land a penalty goal to take the game into extra time.

The scores were locked up at 30-all three-minutes into the first half of extra time when Angus Ernst kicked a field goal to give the Sharks the lead but their finals dreams were crushed when South Sydney’s back-rower Matthew French off-loaded to Bradley Zampech to score a try in the final minute of the game.

Up until then, the game was end-to-end action with both teams trading tries from start to finish with Zampech the only player from either side to score a double out of the 10 tries scored on the day.

Souths five-eighth Blake Taaffe had a cracker of a game, successfully converting six out of seven goals and scoring the opening try to claim 16 of the 36 points the red and green scored.

It was a heart-breaking loss for the Sharks, who finished the season as Minor Premier and have now been bundled out of the Finals after two extra time losses in successive weeks. They fell short to the Raiders at Campbelltown Stadium in a Qualifying Final last week.

The Rabbitohs will go on to face the Panthers next week in the Preliminary finals.

Sydney Roosters v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

Matt Buxton

The Sydney Roosters defeated the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in another Jersey Flegg extra time final, booking them a spot in the Preliminary Finals.

Zachary Rumble got the Bulldogs on the board first with an early try before Stanley Mele scored his first of two tries for the Roosters in the 13th minute.

The Roosters hit the lead soon after when Coby Thomas spotted half a gap and burst through, but the Bulldogs hit back almost immediately when Declan Casey took the ball to the line and held it up beautifully for Isaiah Tass to score.

A mistake off the kick-off allowed the Roosters to go on the attack once again and converted their good field position into points when Stanley Malae ran a good line and crashed over.

A penalty off the kick-off led to Freddy Lussick running a fair distance to score, giving them a 18-8 lead at the break.

The Bulldogs had to start the second half strong to remain alive, and they did so with back-to-back tries to Lachlan Talau and Tyrone Harding to lock the scores up.

An important long-range try to Jake Kambos gave the Roosters a late lead but the Bulldogs scored at the end to send the game into extra time.

Kobe Rugless scored a powerful try for the Roosters in extra time which was the only scoring play, which advances them to the Preliminary Finals.