2023 NRLWahine: Round Two Preview & Stats
NRLW enters round three tonight with a fabulous NRLWahine encounter between Roosters and Dragons, featuring Teuila Fotu-Moala starting at prop for Roosters. Fotu-Moala made her NRLW comeback in last round's loss to Raiders and an injury to Mya Hill-Moana in that game has opened up an opportunity for the NRLW veteran to make her first start of the season.
Roosters also have Otesa Pule and Lexi Kiriwi on their bench, while Dragons will be humming after an impressive win over Eels in which Cortez Te Pou scored two tries on debut. The Hawke's Bay junior pounced on two delightful kicks from Kiwi Ferns halfback Raecene McGregor, who continues to build an intriguing combo with Tyla Nathan-Wong.
Alexis Tauaneai is serving up dominant mahi in the middle for Dragons. The 18-year-old from Wainuiomata has played 52 and 46 minutes in her first two NRLW games, averaging 121m/game and making 61 tackles @ 95.3%. Tauaneai had a linebreak in the win over Eels and made 30 tackles without a miss, setting up a lovely battle in the middle alongside Roxy Murdcoh and a strong Dragons forward pack against Fotu-Moala's Roosters.
Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly missed last week's win for Cowboys over Knights and she is back on the wing for Cowboys as they face Broncos. Mele Hufanga, Gayle Broughton, Annetta Nu'uausala and Brianna Clark are all named for Broncos and as they have two losses to start their campaign along with Eels, Broncos will want a win as soo as possible.
Sharks and Titans feature the regular dose of NRLWahine. Sharks winger Annessa Biddle is another young wahine from Aotearoa shining in her first season of NRLW. Biddle was immense for Sharks in their loss to Tigers and is currently ranked second for post contact metres. Georgia Hale leads the NRLW for tackles once again, making 99 tackles with just one missed tackle. That's 99 tackles @ 99% efficiency and for context, the next best tackler is Simaima Taufa who has 82 tackles and five missed tackles.
Fullback: Apii Nicholls
Wingers: Cortez Te Pou, Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly, Annessa Biddle, Madison Bartlett
Centres: Mele Hufanga, Kiana Takairangi, Niall Williams-Guthrie, Shanice Parker, Abigail Roache, Cheyelle Robins-Reti, Mackenzie Wiki, Leianne Tufuga
Halves: Tyla Nathan-Wong, Raecene McGregor, Gayle Broughton
Middles: Teuila Fotu-Moala, Roxy Murdoch, Alexis Tauaneai, Annetta Nu'uausala, Brianna Clark, Georgia Hale
Edges: -
Bench: Lexi Kiriwi, Otesa Pule, Laishon Albert-Jones, Kerehitina Matua, Shannon Muru
Bench Hooker: Capri Paekau, Nita Maynard
Niall Williams-Guthrie had an improved performance in the Titans win over Broncos last round, with a try assists and four tackle busts. As the position breakdown above shows, Williams-Guthrie is joined by a bunch of NRLWahine centres who are all playing at a high level. Knights have Shanice Parker and Abigail Roache as their centres, plus Raiders have an NRLWahine centre pairing of Cheyelle Robins-Reti and Mackenzie Wiki.
Leianne Tufuga has been among the best centres in NRLW so far, playing for a Tigers team that has two wins along with Titans. Tufuga is first for linebreaks, taking her 87m and 70 per game from her first two seasons all the way up to 162m this season. Tufuga has also improved her tackling, going from 87% and 80% up to 93% tackling efficiency this season. Add to that Tufuga already scoring two tries this season after hitting that exact mark in each of her first two campaigns, plus Tufuga's five linebreaks this season is the same as her first two seasons combined.
Laishon Albert-Jones' return for Knights is the only other notable change for NRLWahine, named on the bench after suffering an injury in the first round. Knights take on Eels and Raiders host Tigers, after their epic win over Roosters in Canberra last round.
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