{"id":732361,"date":"2026-06-12T18:16:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732361\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T18:16:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:16:48","slug":"dolphins-leapfrog-roosters-into-top-four-with-thumping-win-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732361\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins leapfrog Roosters into top four with thumping win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolphins halfback Isaiya Katoa returned from NSW camp to star in a 48-10 thrashing of the Sydney Roosters and secure his side\u2019s sixth win in a row.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins leapfrogged the Roosters into fourth position and confirmed their credentials as premiership contenders in front of 20,687 fans at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Roosters lost debutant centre Reece Foley and five-eighth Hugo Savala to head knocks in the first half. The visitors trailed 12-0 at half-time before the Dolphins put their foot down with six second-half tries.<\/p>\n

Both sides were heavily impacted by State of Origin commitments with the Roosters losing seven to NSW and Queensland. Five Dolphins are in camp in Melbourne with the Maroons.<\/p>\n

Katoa, who had been on standby for Blues playmaker Mitchell Moses during the week, had his fingerprints all over the win.<\/p>\n

His halves partner Kodi Nikorima was also superb, showcasing why he deserves an extension beyond 2026.<\/p>\n

The Roosters started full of venom but had a try disallowed to rampaging forward Solesi Foketi for a double movement.<\/p>\n

Dolphins co-captain Katoa stepped up with a subtle dummy to deceive opposite number Daly Cherry-Evans to open the scoring.<\/p>\n

Dolphins points-scoring whiz Jamayne Isaako, who injured a hand in the final play of the game, converted to equal Canterbury legend Steve Gearin\u2019s all-time premiership record by scoring in his 94th consecutive match.<\/p>\n

The kamikaze running of pocket rocket fullback Trai Fuller got the Dolphins roaring up field to start a set that finished with a try out wide to centre Herbie Farnworth, his sixth of the season.<\/p>\n

The Roosters lost Foley and Savala in rapid succession to head knocks, both while trying to tackle Isaako.<\/p>\n

Roosters debutant winger Rex Bassingthwaighte, just 19, looked every bit the talent he has been touted as with a try, dynamic bursts and all-round nice touches.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins started the second half superbly with Katoa and Nikorima combining. Second-rower Oryn Keely split the defence to send Fuller in for his first try of the year.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Ashley<\/a><\/p>\n

Katoa\u2019s inch-perfect chip for Nikorima to score his 50th NRL try was scintillating. Hooker Jeremy Marshall-King barged over from close range, Farnworth split the defence to send second-rower Connelly Lemuelu over and winger Tevita Naufahu\u2019s kick inside for utility Brad Schneider was a pearler.<\/p>\n

Naufahu\u2019s 100m chase to deny Roosters fullback Cody Ramsey a try revealed the Dolphins\u2019 resolve in defence.<\/p>\n

The loss of Savala meant the Roosters had a third debutant in the match with playmaker Toby Rodwell, 20, coming on in the second half and scoring a try to showcase his class.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolphins halfback Isaiya Katoa returned from NSW camp to star in a 48-10 thrashing of the Sydney Roosters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-732361","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\/732361","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=732361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}