Benji Marshall eclipsed Todd Carney in the battle of the marquee playmakers at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday to cap off a magnificent opening weekend of the NRL season.
In a round where two games went to golden point and three others went down to the wire, rugby league roared into 2012 in stunning style, supporting predictions of one of the closest title battles in the competition’s history.
Marshall’s superb 35-metre field goal sealed a 17-16 golden-point victory for title favourites Wests Tigers over Cronulla after Carney almost single-handedly dragged his side back into the game.
Two of the game’s most lustrous talents went blow for blow in the searing heat, with 2010 Dally M Medallist Carney emulating Marshall’s virtuoso try in the second half then almost winning the game with a field goal in golden point before Marshall struck.
In Sunday’s other match, premiers Manly needed a late Glenn Stewart try to win the battle of last season’s grand finalists, beating the Warriors 26-20 in another epic encounter before a crowd of almost 40,000 at New Zealand rugby union mecca Eden Park.
The Sea Eagles raced in three tries in the first quarter but had to hold off a blistering fightback by the youthful Warriors sparked by brilliant young half Shaun Johnson before rookie head coach Geoff Toovey could breathe a sigh of relief.
Marshall’s extra-time clincher followed the golden-point field goal by Jamie Soward in St George Illawarra’s 15-14 win over Newcastle and their former coach Wayne Bennett in Friday night’s season opener.
While Carney and Marshall slugged it out on Sunday, glamour fullbacks Billy Slater and Josh Dugan did likewise at a sodden Canberra 24 hours earlier.
Dugan looked to have sealed a shock win for the Raiders with a field goal six minutes from time, only for Slater to soar for a towering bomb at the death and score a try to snatch the 24-19 win in another memorable match.
In the other first-round thriller, Penrith led with seven minutes to go only to be run down by new coach Des Hasler’s Bulldogs through tries to John Morris and Bryson Goodwin.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan was bitterly disappointed by some refereeing decisions in his side’s loss to Wests Tigers, but was heartened at the performance from his team, who have been out of finals contention for the past three years.
“You like to challenge yourselves against the best,” Flanagan said.
“The Tigers have been tipped to win the comp and we went right to the end and I think we should have won.”
Flanagan was pleased with star recruit Carney’s contribution and said he expected more to come from the former Sydney Roosters and Canberra ace.
“I thought he played really well second half,” said Flanagan.
“Along with everyone else he was a little bit short in the first half, but I was really pleased with how he played.”
The Tigers looked anything but premiership favourites for much of the game, but did enough to get over the line thanks to Marshall.
England international back-rower Gareth Ellis ranked the Kiwi superstar as the best he’s played alongside.
“As a creative talent, he’s one of a kind,” Ellis said.
“He’s won us another game here today and I’ve lost count of the number of times he’s done it in the time I’ve been here.
“We see him at training putting over kicks like that from 50-odd metres all the time and he did it today when the pressure was on.”
For all the glitz and glamour from some of the game’s biggest names, it is last year’s wooden spooners the Gold Coast Titans who sit atop the table following their surprise 18-0 win over Johnathan Thurston’s North Queensland in Townsville on Saturday night.
Prize recruit Jamal Idris starred for the Titans with a tryscoring double on debut.
