A no-name Cronulla have booked a shock Auckland Nines grand final showdown with a star-studded South Sydney at Eden Park.
The underrated Sharks are on track to provide a welcome feel good story following the supplements saga after upsetting Sydney Roosters 10-4 in their semi-final.
They will line up against the tournament’s only other undefeated team, NRL defending champions the Rabbitohs who thrashed Parramatta 37-6.
Cronulla sounded their intentions when they silenced the fanatical Eden Park crowd and pipped hot tournament favourites the Warriors 14-12 in their quarter-final.
The Roosters were expected to dismiss a Sharks outfit that left their stars Ben Barba, Mick Ennis, Andrew Fifita and skipper Paul Gallen at home.
Cronulla also lost stand-in skipper Luke Lewis (knee strain) before they flew out to New Zealand.
And they had another injury drama during a tense semi-final, losing Fa’amanu Brown with a suspected knee injury in the first half.
But nothing could stop the Sharks’ giant killing run.
Both teams traded tries after a scoreless first half before Sosaia Feki broke the deadlock by finishing a long range effort by outmuscling Roger Tuivasa-Sheck over the line.
Cronulla are keen to make headlines for the all right reasons after the fallout over the 2011 supplement saga which reduced them from 2013 finals threats to wooden spooners last year.
Sharks’ Nines captain Wade Graham is one of 10 current and former Cronulla players who returned from a backdated 12 months suspension in November.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan also returned from a ban just three months ago.
In the other semi-final, South Sydney were made to wait for minutes before Parramatta finally took the field.
But the Rabbitohs made up for lost time, scoring four first half tries including a double to Bryson Goodwin.
In the end, the defending NRL premiers ran in seven tries with halfback Adam Reynolds helping himself to two.
Parramatta didn’t get on the board until the final minute when Tepai Moeroa crashed over.
Meanwhile, Nines poster boy Shaun Johnson was left to wonder what might have been after the Warriors’ spectacular quarter-final crash.
The Warriors outscored Cronulla three tries to two in their quarter-final but still fell short.
Johnson tried desperately to spark a final play when Graham gave away consecutive penalties in the dying seconds but no time-out was called and the Sharks hung on for a boilover.
“We scored more tries than them but we have to learn how to kick goals – it’s very disappointing,” Johnson said.
“The referee didn’t blow time off so we had to get going (near fulltime).
“We didn’t have time to think.
“But I am not looking at that as to why we lost the game.”
The grand final kicks off at 1730 AEDT.
