TOBY Rudoph escaped the fabled ‘nudie run’ in the best possible fashion when he scored the match-sealing try in Cronulla’s elimination final win over Sydney Roosters.
Rudolph barged over in the 75th minute of a nailbiting knock-out clash at Sharks Stadium before a sold-out crowd, securing the 20-10 triumph.
It was his first try of the year. Cronulla proceed to a preliminary semi-final against the loser of tomorrow’s Canberra-Brisbane clash at GIO Stadium.
“As far as players go, he’s one of our most selfless players and the things he does off the ball that you don’t notice, he’s a fantastic player and I reckon he’s underestimated,’ Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said of extroverted prop Rudolph.
“For him to have a moment in the sun is great.”
Roosters talisman Mark Nawaquanitawase scored early at a venue many believe is not worthy of finals series matches.
But his opposite number Ronaldo Mulitalo hit back twice to give the home side the lead before Angus Crichtorn crashed over following oranges to set up a nailbiting finale.
Then Rudolph made sure of it, charging onto a short ball from dummy half and crashing over to the right of the posts.
“We’ll do what the Sharks do mate: we’ll shut our mouths, go about our work and show up next week,” said Fitzgibbon.
“We feel we’ve got more to offer. If ever we were going to get flustered, it was tonight.
“We didn’t flinch.”
CRONULLA 20 (Mulitalo 2 Rudolph tries Hynes 4 goals) beat SYDNEY ROOSTERS 10 (Nawaquanitawase Crichton tries Walker goal) at Sharks Stadium. Crowd: 12,842.
Teams:
CRONULLA: William Kennedy; Sione Katoa, Jesse Ramien, KL Iro, Ronaldo Mulitalo; Braydon Trindall, Nicho Hynes; Adin Fonua-Blake, Blayke Brailey (c), Toby Rudolph, Billy Burns, Teig Wilton, Jesse Colquhoun. Res: Oregon Kaufusi, Siosifa Talakai, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Briton Nikora. 18th man: Daniel Atkinson.
ROOSTERS: James Tedesco; Daniel Tupou, Billy Smith, Robert Toia, Mark Nawaquanitawase; Hugo Savala, Sam Walker; Spencer Leniu, Benaiah Ioelu, Lindsay Collins, Angus Crichton, Victor Radley, Naufahu White. Res: Connor Watson, Egan Butcher, Blake Steep, Siua Wong. 18th man: Sandon Smith.
Referee: Todd Smith.