NRL Champions Melbourne Storm hope to continue to dominate
Australian National Rugby League
The regular Australian National League season was very competitive and Penrith Panthers ended up as leaders heading into the play-offs, however as it proved the best team in the regular season didn’t win the Grand Final.
Penrith Panthers won 18 of their 20 matches and totally dominated the regular season with a pretty awesome record. Winning all 9 of their home matches and only losing one of their away matches delivered a superb return. Next up were the eventual champions Melbourne Storm who finished 5 points behind Penrith Panthers winning 16 of their 20 matches and losing 4 of them.
Other play-off teams to mention include the early leader’s Parramatta Eels and Sydney Roosters who all had a good regular-season record winning 15 and 14 of their 20 regular season matches respectively. During the regular season and into the play-offs Pinnacle Sports has all the odds for Rugby and looking ahead continue to have up to date odds for punters.
Moving into the play-offs, the finals week 1 saw Penrith Panthers only just beat Sydney Roosters by 1 point as they received their bye to the semi-finals. Maybe from this game, it could have been taken that Penrith were running out of steam after a pretty flawless season.
Elsewhere Canberra Raiders defeated Sharks 33-20 and performed really well in the match. Melbourne Storm proved they were ready for the knock-out stages by defeating Parramatta Eels 36-24 and the final match saw Rabbitohs put on an awesome display scoring 46 as they dominated Knights.
The final knock-out stages before the semi-finals saw two intriguing matches as the Rabbitohs continued their outstanding forward play scoring 38 points in a one-sided victory over Parramatta Eels who had no answer to the quick play and power that their opponents threw at them.
The other match was a lot closer as Sydney Roosters just lost out to Canberra Raiders 18-22 in a closely fought match which saw Roosters eliminated and the Raiders go through to the semi-finals.
National Rugby League Semi-Finals
The line-up for the semi-finals naturally saw the top two teams in the regular season, with the surprise package of Rabbitohs lining up alongside Canberra Raiders. In a repeat of the previous week, we saw a one-sided match alongside a close match.
The one-sided match saw Melbourne Storm beat Canberra Raiders by 30 points to 10 and take massive confidence ahead of the Grand Final. Scoring 5 tries to 2, Melbourne were outstanding in the match and dominated from start to finish. The most impressive note from the performance was their defence so only concede 10 points, while in the attack, the 5 tries were all scored by different players.
The second semi-final saw Penrith Panthers win 20-16 over the Rabbitohs and this was a super match for the neutral. It was very highly contested and the shock could have happened but the class and extra determination from the regular-season winners. Nathan Cleary converted all three tries and also scored the only penalty.
National Rugby League Grand Final
It came down to Penrith Panthers against Melbourne Storm to decide who was going to win the Grand Final of Australian Rugby League 2020. It was an exhilarating Grand Final which saw a dominant first-half display by Melbourne Storm the favourites, the star man was Cameron Smith of Melbourne Storm. Smith not only scored a try, but converted two out of three tries and also scored two penalties to contribute to a 26-20 win over Penrith Panthers.
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The game was a little hot-tempered which wasn’t surprising for a Grand Final as two Storm players Hughes and Smith were sin-binned towards the end of the match.
Huge credit for Penrith Panthers who came back strong in the second half after being shell shocked in the first half, but their response wasn’t quite good enough as Melbourne Storm were crowned champions and will enjoy the success of a long season which ended with silverware.
In this offseason period in preparation for the new season, Pinnacle Sports will have all the odds ahead of the new season of rugby.
