{"id":480421,"date":"2026-02-14T23:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480421\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T23:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:03:10","slug":"faaletino-tavana-scores-stunning-try-in-nrl-trial-canterbury-bulldogs-star-matt-burton-limps-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480421\/","title":{"rendered":"Faaletino Tavana scores stunning try in NRL trial, Canterbury Bulldogs star Matt Burton limps off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers rookie Faaletino Tavana has laid claim to one of the best tries in 2026 during a preseason trial against the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n

The Tigers came from 0-16 down on Saturday to claim a 42-26 win in a trial match of mostly second-string players.<\/p>\n

Heamasi Makasini bagged a hat-trick for Wests, but it was Tiger teammate Tavana who produced the moment of the match.<\/p>\n

Tavana jumped out of the field to avoid defender Enzo Griffier, then contorted himself to place the ball on the line late in the match.<\/p>\n

Tigers coach Benji Marshall had plenty to smile about on Saturday, with the hat-trick performance by Makasini showing the teenager is ready for a big year in 2026.<\/p>\n

The key stat behind every NRL team in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

With the preseason challenge well underway and the season-opening matches in Las Vegas on the horizon, find out the key numbers that will make or break your team’s NRL chances for 2026.<\/p>\n

Makasini’s sparkling display comes at the perfect time for the Tigers, who are preparing to shuffle their backline around as Adam Doueihi begins the season in the halves.<\/p>\n

Makasini has mostly trained on the left wing this pre-season, so is competing with Jeral Skelton for chances, but could also fill in at centre should Starford To’a or Taylan May go down while Doueihi is in the halves.<\/p>\n

“I can cover both spots. I like both positions,” Makasini said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been on the left a bit, left wing. But there’s a couple of good wingers in our team. We’re all fighting for the spot.”<\/p>\n

Injury puts star Bulldog in doubt for Las Vegas opener<\/p>\n

Matt Burton is backing himself to overcome a hamstring injury in time for Canterbury’s Las Vegas season opener after limping off during the Bulldogs’s 28-0 pre-season thrashing of Newcastle.<\/p>\n

\"MAtt<\/p>\n

Matt Burton limped off the field on Saturday against the Knights. (AAP: Darren Pateman)<\/p>\n

Dylan Brown had a quiet first hit-out in Knights colours but the multi-million-dollar recruit’s underwhelming showing was overshadowed by the poorly timed injury to his rival No.6.<\/p>\n

Burton scored an early try but pulled up sore following a tackle from Phoenix Crossland and Brown midway through Saturday’s first half.<\/p>\n

He managed to complete a tackle on Knights winger Dom Young during the next set before leaving the field for medical assessment.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“We saw him grabbing at it, and we told the trainers to get him off,” Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo told reporters at Hunter Stadium in Newcastle.<\/p>\n

“He had to make that tackle [on Young], so he couldn’t have been too bad.”<\/p>\n

Burton was walking freely in the Bulldogs shed after full-time, albeit with a brace on his hamstring, and told club staff his injury felt minor.<\/p>\n

“He said it’s not too bad, it feels all right,” Ciraldo said.<\/p>\n

“He just felt a little something and just thought with it being a trial that he’d come get it checked.”<\/p>\n

Burton will nevertheless be racing the fitness clock to board Thursday’s flight to the US, where the Bulldogs face St George Illawarra for their season opener at Allegiant Stadium.<\/p>\n

AAP\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers rookie Faaletino Tavana has laid claim to one of the best tries in 2026 during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[5844,64,63,16658,13217,761,762,158,588,85,1109,243916,4515],"class_list":{"0":"post-480421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-abc-sport","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-canterbury-bankstown-bulldogs","12":"tag-matt-burton","13":"tag-national-rugby-league","14":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","15":"tag-nrl","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-trial","19":"tag-try","20":"tag-wests-tigers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480421","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=480421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}