47m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:15amNRL Friday — live scoreboard

14m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:48am

Halftime: Panthers 24 lead Roosters 4

The Roosters manage to steady late but the damage has well and truly been done. A very impressive half from the Panthers.

20m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:42am

35′ Panthers take two more

Watson gives away a penalty in the ruck right in front and Cleary takes the two. Penrith now lead 24-4. 

21m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:41am

34′ Roosters make it hard for themselves

Nat Butcher gives away a penalty for a high tackle and the Panthers are on the attack again. Talagi dinks a kick up and the Roosters clean it up but they’re trapped in-goal for the drop out.

Walker goes short and Nawaqanitawase goes up for it, he’s ruled to have knocked it on. The Roosters challenge but they don’t get it.

Cleary goes for an early kick but Tedesco cleans it up and gets back into the field of play. Roosters hang on….only for Toia to drop it cold! Deary me, another chance for Penrith.

28m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:34am29′ Panthers score again

Nawaqanitawase beats two defenders and throws an offload but it goes towards the sideline, Pauga keeps it in but only for To’o to clean it up. Penrith on the attack again.

And they score again, this time down the right after a lovely spread highlighted by some Cleary deception – he shaped inside and threw it outside without looking – which created the space for Jenkins to score his second.

In the blink of an eye Penrith have taken total control of this game. Cleary nails it from touch and it’s 22-4 Panthers. 

35m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:27am23′ Penrith go bang-bang

The Panthers are purring now. On the second tackle after the restart they spread it left, Alamoti beats Pauga cold and flies down field.

He has Cleary in support and Cleary has Edwards to take it home. That’s two tries in a matter of seconds for the Panthers and out of nowhere they lead 16-4.

37m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:25am20′ To’o grabs a stunner!

Oh man, Bizza’s pulled off a beauty here!

On the last the Panthers spread it right, it goes through the hands to To’o. He’s run out of room at the 30 and grubbers for himself, gets it back then grubbers again past Tedesco to score!

That’s the individual try of the season thus far, goddamn.

Cleary from the scrum line….you bet. Panthers lead 10-4.

42m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:20am18′ Panthers reply through Jenkins

Smith puts Edwards through a gap, he’s away but gets dragged down by Tedesco in cover. There’s a penalty but Tedesco avoids the sin bin.

Penrith hammer the short side – deadset, they have four runs in a row as it gets increasingly shorter – and on the last Kenny does the same, Nawaqanitawase goes for an intercept and misses and Jenkins scores!

A soft try given the intensity of the match thus far. Cleary from touch…no good. It’s 4-all. 

47m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:15am

14′ Toia almost grabs a double

An excellent Tedesco kick return and a set restart puts the Roosters on the attack.

They sweep right and Toia powers towards the line, he looks like he’s going to score but loses the ball juuuuust short. Penrith hang on.

55m agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:07am6′ Toia powers over for opening try

Back-to-back set restarts puts the Roosters on the attack and a grubber from Robson forces a drop out after Edwards just manages to drag down Toia short of the line.

Tedesco ventures right and gets some early ball to Toia, he takes on McLean and beats him cold to score the opening try.

Very nice stuff from the Toia and good lead-up work – normal shape isn’t going to beat Penrith, it needs to come in broken-field situations like that.

Walker from wide out…but he can’t swing it around. Roosters lead 4-0.

1h agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 7:01am

And we’re underway at the SFS

The Panthers kick us off, running left to right.

1h agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 6:58am

Tips

Hard to go past the Panthers for this first game – they’ve looked so strong through the opening fortnight with their defensive resolve particularly standing out.

But I’m no writing off the Roosters’ chances though, they’ve got plenty of attacking firepower they started to unlock last week.

Let’s go Penrith by four with Papali’i to score the first try.

1h agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 6:44am

Reece Robson is on debut for the Roosters

The big inclusion for the Roosters this week is NSW Origin hooker Reece Robson, who’s making an early comeback from a broken hand after joining the Bondi club from the Cowboys over the summer.

Hooker has been a bit of a problematic spot for the Roosters since Jake Friend retired and they’ll be looking for Robson to make the spot his own.

The 27-year old has an excellent workrate and is more dangerous out of dummy half than he gets credit for. I’m expecting him to be a big success this year.

1h agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 6:33am

Final teams: Roosters vs Panthers

Both teams are 1-17 as named on Tuesday with Cody Ramsey and Toby Rodwell rounding out the bench for the Tricolours while Izack Tago and Jack Cole are doing the same for the Panthers.

1h agoFri 20 Mar 2026 at 6:22am

Hello and welcome to the ABC’s NRL live blog

Hey everybody, hope you’re pumped for a massive Friday night footy double header.

First up we have the Roosters and the Panthers at the SFS before we head south to Melbourne where the Storm will play the Broncos in the grand final rematch.

That’s four big teams in two big games, so kick back, relax and let me do all the work – I’ll have updates and news from both matches from go to woah.

I’m Nick Campton, this is the ABC NRL live blog, let’s make some plays out there tonight.

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