The Blue and Gold Army will be out in force for Parra’s first home game of 2026 as they welcome the passionate Red V faithful to CommBank Stadium.<\/p>\n
Confidence is high in the Eels camp after disposing of the premiers in Round 2 while the Dragons were left to rue a late fadeout against the Storm.<\/p>\n
The final chapter in Round 3 will be written in Townsville when either the Cowboys or Titans will get off the mark in 2026 and the loser will be consigned to 0-3 and a whole heap of soul searching.<\/p>\n
Follow all the action from Round 3 of the NRL Telstra Premiership on NRL.com’s live blog.<\/p>\n
Eels v Dragons at CommBank Stadium<\/p>\n
74 min: The Dragons go to the right and a poor pass from Dan Atkinson is spilled by Val Holmes. The loose ball is scooped up by Sean Russell who pops it up for Josh Addo-Carr to sprint 70 metres for the 160th try of his career. The CommBank Stadium crowd erupts as The Foxx celebrates in style. Eels 30-20.<\/p>\n
71 min: A booming klck by Mitch Moses goes dead and the Dragons get seven tackles but the Eels can set their line.<\/p>\n
68 min: Dan Atkinson hoists the ball high but Isaiah Iongi again shows his aerial skills to bring down the catch.<\/p>\n
66 min: Consecutive sets for the Dragons inside the red zone but they come up empty as the Eels dig deep in defence. Parra are now back to 13 men.<\/p>\n
62 min: Mitch Moses deliver a ‘hospital pass’ to Junior Paulo who puts the ball down in contact.<\/p>\n
61 min: Eels forward Sam Tuivaiti leaves the field for a HIA.<\/p>\n
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Moses Suli Try<\/p>\n
57 min: A pinpoint left foot grubber by Kyle Flanagan sits up perfectly for Moses Suli to score and the Dragons are back in it. Val Holmes adds the extras. Eels 24-20.<\/p>\n
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Charlie Guymer sent to the bin<\/p>\n
56 min: Charlie Guymer is sent to the sin bin for a professional foul to leave the Eels a man down.<\/p>\n
55 min: A high tackle penalty against Sam Tuivaiti gives the Dragons field position.<\/p>\n
54 min: The Dragons continue to cruel themselves with errors as Val Holmes fails to control a tough pass with the Eels defence all over him.<\/p>\n
48 min: Mitch Moses chips over the top and Clint Gutherson makes a mess of the clean-up to hand the Eels a shot at points from 25m out but Kitione Kautoga comes up with an error.<\/p>\n
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Tallyn Da Silva 2nd Try<\/p>\n
46 min: Poor marker defence by Luciano Leilua and Josh Kerr is exposed by Tallyn Da Silva who darts over from dummy half to complete his double. Mitch Moses converts. Eels 24-14.<\/p>\n
Mixed bag for Toby: Red V workhorse Toby Couchman was all effort in the opening 40 as he got through 11 runs for 116 metres and made 20 tackles. He was forced from the field in the 32nd minute for a HIA after a head clash.<\/p>\n
Half-time: Two tries in the space of five minutes to Tallyn Da Silva and Kitione Kautoga give the Eels the lead at the break despite having only 48 per cent of possession and running for 200 less metres.<\/p>\n
40 min: Jordan Samrani is helped from the field with a leg injury with the Eels already missing J’maine Hopgood who went off with a knee injury.<\/p>\n
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Kitione Kautoga Try<\/p>\n
39 min: The Dragons are back to 13 men but they can’t stop Parra’s left edge when Matt Doorey is pulled down just short and Tallyn Da Silva gets into dummy half quickly and picks up Kitione Kautoga who scores. Mitch Moses again adds the extras. Eels 18-14.<\/p>\n
37 min: Mitch Moses goes to the air and Kyle Flanagan is penalised for running an escort on Isaiah Iongi.<\/p>\n
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Tallyn Da Silva Try<\/p>\n
35 min: Tallyn Da Silva grabs a try after slick lead-up from Mitch Moses, Kelma Tuilagi, Jordan Samrani and Jonah Pezet on the right edge. Moses converts. Dragons 14-12.<\/p>\n
32 min: Toby Couchman leaves the field for a HIA.<\/p>\n
30 min: A chance goes begging on the right edge for the Dragons when Val Holmes delivers a flick pass that gives Setu Tu no chance and rolls into touch.<\/p>\n
29 min: Mitch Moses grubbers for the in-goal and Kitione Kautoga and Clint Gutherson both dive for the ball with the referee ruling it went dead off the Eel.<\/p>\n
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Ryan Couchman sent to the bin<\/p>\n
28 min: Just 10 minutes after coming onto the field in his return from suspension J’Maine Hopgood is dragged down from behind by Ryan Couchman who is placed on report and sent to the sin bin for a hip-drop tackle.<\/p>\n
27 min: Clint Gutherson puts Val Holmes into space but the centre’s pass to Dan Atkinson is ruled to have gone forward.<\/p>\n
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Jaydn Su’A Try<\/p>\n
24 min: Damien Cook scoots out of dummy half and picks up Dan Atkinson who delivers a short ball to a rampaging Jaydn Su’A who surges past Jonah Pezet to score. Val Holmes converts. Dragons 14-6.<\/p>\n
18 min: Jonah Pezet launches a bomb, Clint Gutherson lets it bounce and it finishes up with Kelma Tuilagi who decides to kick but his banana kick is a shocker and is easily cleaned up by the Dragons.<\/p>\n
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Luciano Leilua Try<\/p>\n
13 min: Kyle Flanagan drifts across field from 10 metres out and turns Luciano Leilua underneath him with the back-rower surging through the middle of the ruck to score under the sticks. Val Holmes converts. Dragons 8-6.<\/p>\n
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Jonah Pezet Penalty Try<\/p>\n
11 min: A huge moment in the match with the Eels awarded a penalty try to Jonah Pezet after Jaydn Su’A dragged him back as he loomed in support of Kitione Kautoga. The bunker ruled that Pezet would have scored had he not been dragged back despite the fact Clint Gutherson was in close proximity to make the tackle. Eels 6-2.<\/p>\n
9 min: Luciano Leilua tries to push a pass in traffic but comes up with an error 10 metres inside the Eels half.<\/p>\n
7 min: Kyle Flanagan runs the ball on the last and is dragged down just a metre short by Junior Paulo and Ryley Smith.<\/p>\n
6 min: Another Dragons high ball, another escort penalty, this time by Kitione Kautoga on Val Holmes. The Dragons elect to tap and go for a try.<\/p>\n
3 min: An early penalty against Ryley Smith for an escort as the Dragons went to the air. Val Holmes makes no mistake with the shot. Dragons 2-0.<\/p>\n
Late Mail<\/p>\n
Eels: Dylan Walker starts at lock, Jack Williams goes to prop and J’maine Hopgood slides to the bench in a late switch 90 minutes before kick-off. Jack de Belin dropped out of the squad on Saturday and was replaced by Charlie Guymer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dragons:\u00a0Blake Lawrie starts and Hamish Stewart goes to the bench in a game day swap. Jacob Liddle is on track to make his return from a hamstring injury and will form a one-two punch with starting hooker Damien Cook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Cook Islands on Valentine’s mind<\/p>\n
Numbers Game<\/p>\n
The Eels have won their last four games against the Dragons at CommBank Stadium.
\nThe Dragons have lost their last eight away games.
\nEels winger Josh Addo-Carr has scored eight tries in his last four games at CommBank Stadium.
\nDragons fullback Clint Gutherson has scored try doubles in his last three games at CommBank.
\nThe Eels have scored 115 points in their last three games at CommBank.<\/p>\n
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Moses and Pezet forming a strong combination<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\nCowboys v Titans at Queensland Country Bank Stadium<\/p>\n
Late Mail<\/p>\n
Cowboys:\u00a0Griffin Neame will start and Coen Hess goes to the bench in a game day change after Matthew Lodge was added to the six-man bench in place of Harrison Graham on Saturday. Inspirational skipper Reuben Cotter is straight back into the starting side after missing last week’s loss to Wests Tigers due to family reasons. Cotter’s return will see Kai O’Donnell shift to the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Titans:\u00a0Jayden Campbell returns from a hamstring injury in a major boost for new coach Josh Hannay. The playmaker was named on the six-man bench on Tuesday but the coach confirmed on Saturday that Campbell would start at halfback and Lachlan Ilias would move to the bench. Fullback Keano Kini suffered a minor cork last week’s game against the Dolphins but has trained well and is good to go.<\/p>\n
Numbers Game<\/p>\n
The Cowboys scored 80 points in two wins against the Titans in 2025.
\nThe Titans have won only once in seven attempts at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
\nCowboys winger Murray Taulagi has scored a try in his last three games against the Titans.
\nTitans lock Chris Randall will make his 100th NRL appearance.
\nCowboys centre Jaxon Purdue has scored five tries in his last six NRL appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue and Gold Army will be out in force for Parra’s first home game of 2026 as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-341831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}