{"id":735719,"date":"2026-06-14T09:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/735719\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T09:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:26:18","slug":"nrl-news-2026-jarome-luai-scores-hat-trick-as-wests-tigers-defeat-gold-coast-titans-video-post-game-interview-kai-pearce-paul-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/735719\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Jarome Luai scores hat-trick as Wests Tigers defeat Gold Coast Titans, video, post-game interview, Kai Pearce-Paul injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jarome Luai<\/a> has helped give the Wests Tigers<\/a> a fairytale send-off at Leichhardt Oval<\/a>, scoring a second-half hat-trick against the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In front of a rapturous home crowd, it was co-captain Luai who stole the show, firing back with a spectacular individual display in the 36-28 win.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai celebrates his third try against the Titans.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThe skipper with a hat-trick in the second half, he\u2019s stamped his authority and look at them celebrate,\u201d Phil Gould said on Nine. <\/p>\n

The performance put to bed what Luai described as a \u201ctough\u201d period with criticism about his move to the PNG Chiefs coinciding with the Tigers\u2019 poor form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The match was the last at the club\u2019s spiritual home ground until 2028, with long-overdue renovations set to begin in the coming months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hosts bounded out to an early lead with Starford To\u2019a and Taylan May both scoring to put the Titans on high alert.<\/p>\n

However, the celebratory mood was quickly dampened by a devastating injury blow to star back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul. <\/p>\n

The forward was forced from the field after suffering an awkward pectoral injury which could sideline the English star for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every time someone grabs at them, they don\u2019t often have to go for scans,\u201d Brad Fittler said on Nine at half time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019ve done them (a pec injury), they\u2019ve done them and that\u2019s not good news for Kai Pearce-Paul or the Tigers. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one player who can attack and they can go to, to create something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Coast surged into a 24-12 lead early in the second half, led by an absolute masterclass from fullback Keano Kini.<\/p>\n

Kini set up three tries for Jayden Campbell, Kurtis Morrin, and Arama Hau, stunning the Leichhardt faithful and carrying a six-point lead into the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeano Kini … when he breaks through the line, he\u2019s been through three or four times today,\u201d Gould said on commentary. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he surges, the way he moves, the way he commits defenders to him to give his support (to) players every chance. He\u2019s been absolutely outstanding. <\/p>\n

\u201cSupport play: 10 out of 10. They\u2019re a good side, the Titans.\u201d <\/p>\n

But just when all hope looked lost, it was captain Luai that lifted the Tigers to a 36-28 victory to send an emotional goodbye to Leichhardt. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sunday’s game was the final one at Leichhardt for the Tigers due to renovations. \u00a0Cameron Spencer<\/p>\n

\u201cGood bounce back. Rollercoaster, but we got the job done for the fans,\u201d a relieved Luai told Nine post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a weird one. We were down on the scoreboard – but that\u2019s just the energy we felt from the crowd and the boys brought it home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was thrilling for me. It\u2019s been a tough couple of weeks. If we can play our brand of footy, we\u2019re a tough team to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jarome Luai has helped give the Wests Tigers a fairytale send-off at Leichhardt Oval, scoring a second-half hat-trick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-735719","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\/735719","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=735719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}