Friday night football in the NRL features two interesting matchups. The Storm will look to continue their winning ways against the Titans from their new home on the Sunny Coast. Meanwhile, the Broncos will look for a rare back to back win this season as they head to Leichhardt Oval for a matchup with the Tigers.
NRL Round 10 Friday Betting Tips
Storm vs Titans
(Fri, Jul 17 6:00pm)
The Storm outlasted the Raiders 20-14 last week in a bit of a night to forget for both sides. Melbourne made plenty of errors in the slick Canberra conditions and missed 45 tackles. However, Ryan Papenhuyzen scored one of the best solo tries of the season in the major highlight of the victory. Now on Friday night, the Storm “host” the Titans on the Sunshine Coast after the team was forced out of Melbourne for obvious reasons. In team news, they welcome back two huge inclusions with Cam Munster named at 5/8th and Felise Kaufusi is back in the second row. Brandon Smith takes the position of the injured Jesse Bromwich in the front row as well.
Gold Coast produced a comeback victory over the Warriors last week and kept their season alive as a result. After falling behind 12-0 in the early stages, the Titans held their own defensively and while they got a few soft calls from the officials, the Warriors didn’t take advantage of their field position. Highlighted by just 15 missed tackles, the Titans look solid defensively. The Titans forward pack is also starting to take shape. With Jai Arrow leaving next season, the likes of Fotuaika, Jolliffe and Fermor have shown signs that they can replace Arrow next season. In terms of team selections, Brian Kelly and Phillip Sami both return to the backline. Fermor moves into the second row and Cartwright/Stone have been dropped.
The bookies are predicting a massive blowout in this matchup as the 3rd placed Storm should be far too good for the 15th Titans. Melbourne has also been a bogey side for the Gold Coast in NRL history, which includes 4 straight defeats. However, we feel this total is high considering the Storm’s error-riddled performance last week. But on the flip side, the Storm have kept the Titans scoreless in the last 2 second halves of the last 2 meetings and that should be Bellamy’s gameplan here. So we like the Under here.
Under 45.5 Total Points
$1.90
Wests Tigers vs Broncos
(Fri, Jul 17 7:55pm)
The Tigers head into Friday night’s clash on the back of another close loss. In the last 2 weeks, the Tigers have fallen to the Panthers 19-12 and South Sydney 18-10. While those 2 defeats against top 8 sides isn’t a bad form guide, Michael McGuire has the axe out again. Regular halfback Luke Brooks has been dropped to the bench and Benji Marshall will run the show in the #7 jersey. Josh Reynolds suspension opens the door for Billy Walters at 5/8th. Tommy Talau is also back on the wing and Russell Packer gets the start in the front row.
Meanwhile, the Broncos finally ended their 6 game losing streak with a comfortable victory over the Bulldogs in the end. The big Brisbane pack was just too much for Canterbury and the likes of Isaako and Coates benefited in the backline. However, the out of form Broncos will still need to work on their error rate after 17 errors in the win. In team selections, captain Alex Glenn is out with injury and Ben Te’o comes into the side. Joe Ofahengaue returns from suspension on the bench and Corey Oates will continue in the forward pack.
This is a massive clash for both sides as the Tigers look to shore up their top 8 position and the Broncos are now just 1 win outside the top 8. So we feel like this will be a low scoring Friday night game in Sydney between two desperate teams. Brisbane don’t have a great record in Sydney lately and were still error-riddled last week as well. On the other hand, the Tigers have held their own defensively against South Sydney/Penrith in the last 2 weeks. To top it off, the last meeting in Sydney between the two sides resulted in a 9-7 golden point result.
Under 37.5 Total Points
$1.88
