Shattering multiple records in his first full season of rugby league, Nawaqanitawase has been in rare form as of late and heads into his first NRL<\/a> finals series campaign, having scored seven tries in his past two matches.<\/p>\n One of the most difficult players to defend on the wing, the dual-code superstar can evade tackles with ease, burst through multiple defenders, and create something out of nothing.<\/p>\n Despite this, opposing winger Ronaldo Mulitalo<\/a>, who is a star in his own right, is excited to take him on come Saturday night and believes that the “best man wins” the battle.<\/p>\n “I’m excited for it. That’s why I play this game. I want the best of the best,” Mulitalo said in the lead-up to the contest.<\/p>\n “I couldn’t care less what he’s got. It’s me or him next week, and that’s all that matters to me.<\/p>\n “You’ve got to respect when players are playing out of their skin like that. The talent is obviously outstanding. I sit there in awe of what he can produce.<\/p>\n “But it’s a different challenge next week. I’ll back myself against anyone. I’ll be looking forward to that challenge.”<\/p>\n In their two previous meeting earlier in the year, it was the Roosters who emerged victorious 42-16 in Round 12 before the Sharks were able to strike back and get revenge on their opponents in Round 20, winning 31-8.<\/p>\n However, Mulitalo kept the impact of Nawaqanitawase to a minimum, only allowing him to cross the line once during the two clashes in the home-and-away season.<\/p>\n “The past is the past. I’m not going to hang on to anything that was done before,” said. Mulitalo.<\/p>\n “That first game, he played really well against us. In the second game, we were lucky to contain him.<\/p>\n “You can brag on about your year, but this is an open competition. I’m excited for that challenge. I’ll meet him at the top, hopefully, and best man wins.”<\/p>\n
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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 01: Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> of the Roosters makes a break during the round 13 NRL<\/a> match between Sydney Roosters<\/a> and Canberra Raiders<\/a> at Allianz Stadium, on June 01, 2025, in Sydney, Australia<\/a>. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Mark Nawaqanitawase may be the competition’s leading try-scorer, but Cronulla Sharks winger Ronaldo Mulitalo has backed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-132315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}