NRL Round 10 Wrap: Moments Of Magic Cap Off A Scintillating Weekend Of Footy

It was a Magic Round that had everything.

Upsets, blow outs, close finishes, golden point, torrential rain, sunshine - and the perfect amount of amazement.

Here's your review of every match from Round 10.

Newcastle Knights 16 - Canterbury Bulldogs 6

Many expected an underwhelming game for the opening match of Magic Round. And that was exactly what we got. 80 minutes full of errors, poor 5^th tackle options and missed opportunities - but in the end the Knights did enough to get the win.

Scoring three tries to one - despite having two overturned and bombing another two - Newcastle were able to hold to finally put an end to their seven-game losing streak and push the Dogs back down to the bottom of the ladder.

The Knights showed some positive signs after a very disappointing couple of months. Mitch Barnett was solid in his first game back since suspension, and David Klemmer put in another strong performance up the front. Kalyn Ponga had a mixed game but seems to be gaining in confidence.

The Bulldogs were just woeful. 43 percent possession with a 65 percent completion rate, and when they did have the ball, they weren't quite sure what to do with it. TPJ looked very disinterested, and Matt Dufty had a night he would quickly like to forget. Matt Burton and Josh Addo-Carr kept trying to spark something in their attack but none of their teammates had any lighter fluid.

Not sure where to here for the Dogs - and it seems the vultures are circling around coach Trent Barrett.

Brisbane Broncos 38 - Manly Sea Eagles 0

See?! Remember in my preview for this match I said "Last Magic Round Manly smashed Brisbane 50-6. I don't think we will see that again." I told you!

From the moment the Sea Eagles let the ball bounce out from the kick off, you just knew there was something in the air. What followed was a masterclass from the Broncos, who didn't let the weather affect their mission and never let their opponents into the game.

Skipper Adam Reynolds is just on fire at the moment and played another near perfect match. Scoring a try, setting up another two, striking 6/6 conversions and providing a superb kicking game that gave the Broncos the upper hand on so many occasions. Selwyn Cobbo had another blinder, bagging himself a hattrick and doing all he could to remind Queensland selectors not to forget him come Origin time.

Manly had absolutely no answers, and never looked like competing. Shut down form the get-go, they were dominated in both territory and possession. DCE did his best to guide his team around, but it was to no avail. Tommy Turbo looked very restricted, both due to the Broncos defence and his knee. He may have been bought back a bit too early.

After their fourth win in a row, the Broncos find themselves in the top eight, and well and truly on everyone's radar.

South Sydney Rabbitohs 32 - New Zealand Warriors 30

The Bunnies held off a late surge from the Warriors, clinging on for a 32-30 victory on Saturday afternoon.

Souths played an impeccable first half, with stand in skipper Cody Walker leading the way. With a 26-6 lead to the Bunnies heading into the break, the second half was expected to follow suit. But in a habit the Warriors would quickly like to shake, after letting their opponents get a strong start, they kicked into gear in the last 40 minutes.

With the score 32-18 and seven minutes left on the clock, Souths hooker Damien Cook was sent to the sin bin forcing his team to play with 12 men for the remainder of the match. The Warriors learnt their lesson from last week and took advantage of their one man overlap, crossing for another two converted tries and bringing the score line to within two points.

In a frantic last two minutes, the Warriors threw everything they could at their opponents. Even a captain's challenge on the siren couldn't bring them a much-needed penalty, and Souths held on for the win.

"We can look at it two ways; we can look at the comeback and nearly getting there or we can focus on the first half," Warriors coach Nathan Brown said in the post patch press conference.

"As a coach, we have to focus on the first half because that's certainly not where we want to be as a football club. You don't want to be a team that doesn't start games and ends up a fair way behind on the scoreboard, then fights back but gets beaten."

Gold Coast Titans 20 - St George Illawarra Dragons 16

In a match many thought would be a fizzer, turned into an absolute thriller. It went all the way until the 88^th minute, but the Titans finally picked up their third win of the season against the Dragons on Saturday night.

The Titans opened the scoring early when AJ Brimson crossed in the seventh minute. When Dragons hardman Josh McGuire was forced to spend part of his 250^th game in the sin bin, the Titans should have scored again. But the Red V defended their line for five straight sets and then managed to head down the other end and score through winger Mat Feagai. Gold Coast back rower Beau Fermor scored before half time to give his side a 10-6 lead into the break.

In a real arm wrestle of a second half, the Dragons pushed out to a 16-10 lead with ten-minutes to go when Moses Suli scored his first ever try for the club. Zac Lomax missed the conversion that would have given the Red V an eight-point lead, and instead gave the Titans a glimmer of hope. That hope turned into reality when Jarrod Wallace surged his way over the line four minutes later, and with Jamayne Isaako adding the extras it was a 16-all game. Unable to break the deadlock the teams headed to golden point.

It was a missed-field-goal-a-thon from both sides, but eventually Isaako was able cross for a four pointer in the second stanza of extra time, sealing the match for the Titans.

Penrith Panthers 32 - Melbourne Storm 6

And on the flipside, in what was plugged as the spectacle of Magic Round, ended up being a one-sided match, with the Premiers putting on a dominating performance over an understrength Storm side. With fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen and centre Reimis Smith already sidelined earlier in the week, star halfback Jarome Hughes was ruled out just hours before the match.

After their first loss of the season last week at the hands of Parramatta, the Panthers bounced back to secure a five tries to one win over Melbourne. Despite their opposition not being at full strength, the performance from Penrith would have been hard to be beat even if the Storm were at their strongest.

Even in the atrocious weather, the Panthers played to the conditions beautifully and managed an impressive 81 percent completion rate. Jarome Luai played a vital role in his teams win, scoring a try and setting up another two.

Regardless of the rain and their missing stars, the Storm were well below what we have come to expect from them. Five eighth Cameron Munster put in a mighty effort to keep his team in the match but couldn't do it all on his own.

"Didn't really care who we had out. Still had a good enough team to give the Panthers a shake," he admitted after the match.

"We can whinge about the weather or whinge about the slippery ball, but we were poor tonight and that's not us.

"We were poor. We looked like an under-12s team," Munster said.

Canberra Raiders 30 - Cronulla Sharks 10

What a difference a week makes in the rugby league world.

After winning with only 11 men last week, the Sharks put in a woeful effort on Sunday and went down to a Raiders team who ended up with three players in the sin bin, and ironically at one stage had 11 men on the field.

Canberra were all over the Sharks in the first half, and despite Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad being the first Raider sent for ten, they were able to secure a 20-0 half time lead. Canberra needed to make sure they didn't switch off like they have in many other matches this year, and when Elliot Whitehead and Corey Horsburgh were both sent to the naughty corner within minutes of each other it looked like it would all fall apart. But the Sharks couldn't capitalise, and the Raiders put on an impressive defensive performance that kept them in the lead.

Despite two second half tries to Cronulla, the Green Machine matched it with two of their own and went on to win 30-10. A well-deserved back-to-back win for Canberra and relief for Ricky Stuart's blood pressure.

In a far cry from their heroics last week, it was by far the worst performance by the Sharks this year. Star halfback Nicho Hynes was moved to fullback with Will Kennedy suspended, and it hurt the team's attack immensely. Braydon Trindall jumped into the halves, but the experiment proved costly. The usually slick pairing of Hynes and Matt Moylan was sorely missed, with Trindall seemingly well out of his depth.

Sydney Roosters 31 - Parramatta Eels 24

In an absolute cracker of a match, the Roosters looked like the team of old, producing a 31-24 victory over the Eels on Sunday afternoon. It was one of the most entertaining 80 minutes of the weekend, with both teams giving it their all.

The Roosters opened the scoring in only the third minute through big bopper Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, with the Eels hardman Isaiah Papali'I returning serve only a short time later. The Tricolours scored the next two as well a cheeky field goal from halfback Sam Walker and went to the break leading 21-6.

They came out just as strong in the second half, with Joseph Suaalii mirroring teammate Waerea-Hargreaves and scoring after only three minutes. The Eels hit back with three converted tries in the space of ten minutes to find themselves trailing by only one point with 23 minutes still on the clock. The Roosters crossed again to widen their lead to 29-24, and both teams continued to throw everything they had at each other in the final stanza. A late penalty goal to the Roosters gave them a safe seven-point buffer and that's where the scoreboard stayed.

Sam Walker stood up and took charge for the tricolours, putting in a brilliant game against one of the inform number sevens in the comp, Mitch Moses. Suaalii and Waerea-Hargreaves were also impressive for the Roosters.

Papali'I was an absolute workhorse for the Eels, scoring two tries, running for 166m and was his usual destructive self in defence.

North Queensland Cowboys 36 - Wests Tigers 12

The Cowboys finished off Magic Round with a bang, securing their fifth win in a row and ensuring all three Queensland teams took home the points this weekend in front of the local crowd.

Scoring seven tries to two, the Cowboys put on another outstanding show, and cemented their outright third spot on the NRL ladder for a further week. With an 88 percent completion rate - which was sitting at 100 percent for the first half - the Cowboys were close to perfect and showed everyone they are real contenders this season.

The match began with a sprinkle of magic, with an appropriate act for the final game of Magic Round. Murray Taulagi set up the nights first try, and made it look like it was performed by a magician. He managed to throw an amazing flick pass back in field while being taken over the sideline by Jackson Hastings, which was picked up by Scott Drinkwater where he crossed and scored.

Halves Chad Townsend and Tom Dearden steered their team around beautifully and finished the game with two try assists each. Teammate Reuben Cotter also had blinder, running for the most meters of any side with 169 and scoring a barnstorming solo try.

The understrength Tigers played with a lot of heart but couldn't match it with the Cowboys who are firing on all cylinders. Their job was made even harder when hooker Jake Simpkin failed his HIA during the first half and then five-eighth Luke Brooks injured his hamstring just before half time and also never returned.

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