{"id":718856,"date":"2026-06-06T11:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718856\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T11:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:16:12","slug":"nrl-news-2026-dolphns-stars-tom-gilbert-kulikefu-finefeuiaki-dazzle-against-cowboys-worsening-billy-slaters-state-of-origin-headache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718856\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Dolphns stars Tom Gilbert, Kulikefu\u00a0Finefeuiaki dazzle against Cowboys, worsening Billy Slater\u2019s State of Origin headache"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolphins<\/a> forwards Kulikefu\u00a0Finefeuiaki and Tom Gilbert gave Queensland State of Origin<\/a> coach Billy Slater<\/a> a big serving of food for thought in a 40-14 win over the Cowboys<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Broncos workhorse Patrick Carrigan played off the bench in game one but is unavailable for the remainder of the series after suffering an ankle injury last Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kulikefu Finefeuiaki.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

His injury opened the door for the likes of Finefeuiaki and Gilbert to nab a spot on the Maroons\u2019 six-man bench for the June 17 clash in Melbourne \u2013 and both turned in brilliant displays in Townsville on Saturday as they pressed their Origin claims.<\/p>\n

Across 80 minutes in the second row against North Queensland, Finefeuiaki racked up 138 run metres, including 61 post-contact, from 15 carries. He also made 33 tackles.<\/p>\n

Gilbert gave the Dolphins a huge boost off the bench, chalking up 117 run metres from 11 carries and busting out of five tackles.<\/p>\n

His top carry of the evening was an incredible run off the back fence late in the first half. He crashed into the Cowboys defensive line near the 10-metre line and wasn\u2019t stopped until just after the 40-metre line.<\/p>\n

Gilbert was also superb in defence, making 24 tackles and missing zero.<\/p>\n

Slater could use the 25-year-old on an edge or in the middle. Finefeuiaki is only a back-rower, although Reuben Cotter, who played in the second row in game one, could be used in the middle in Melbourne, which gives Slater the flexibility to give Finefeuiaki a run. <\/p>\n

The Dolphins led the Cowboys 16-10 at half-time before carving up their opponents in the second half.<\/p>\n

Cowboys centre Tom Chester was awarded a controversial try in the 20th minute. Dolphins flyer Selwyn Cobbo, who had a scintillating game, appeared to have forced the ball loose as Chester lunged over the try line, but the Bunker ruled the ball-carrier had planted the ball.<\/p>\n

Michael Ennis disagreed with the Bunker\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think that\u2019s a loose carry,\u201d Ennis said on Fox League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the fact Chester just played the whistle … It just didn\u2019t look like a try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cobbo churned out a whopping 321 run metres from 20 carries. The former Broncos star also bagged two tries and broke out of eight tackles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolphins forwards Kulikefu\u00a0Finefeuiaki and Tom Gilbert gave Queensland State of Origin coach Billy Slater a big serving of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-718856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718856","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=718856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}