Friday night footy in Round 15 begins with a highly anticipated top 8 clash between the red-hot Panthers and improving Sharks. Meanwhile, the Dragons travel to Suncorp and will look to continue the Broncos horror 2020 season.
NRL Round 15 Friday Betting Tips
Panthers vs Sharks
Fri, Aug 21 6:00pm
Penrith head into Friday night's home clash against the Sharks looking for their 10th straight victory in what has been an incredible run. Last week, they were challenged by the in-form Warriors in the 18-12 win but as usual, they dominated the possession game and completed 88% of their sets. It was also good to see fullback Dylan Edwards return from injury and the likes of Apisai Koroisau continue to impress for the top of the table Panthers. There's also good news in team selections with the Panthers selecting the same 17 as last week.
Meanwhile, the Sharks are 7th on the ladder and come off a controversial 30-18 win over the Titans. Obviously with Kevin Proctor sent from the field in the second half, the Sharks took their advantage with 3 late tries, which was the major difference between the sides. However, they'll be happy to see Matt Moylan get through without another injury but Josh Dugan had a few issues as the game progressed. Otherwise, the Sharks are unchanged for this important clash.
The two sides have met this season as Charlie Staines scored 4 tries on debut as Penrith smashed the Sharks 56-24. However, the Sharks outside defence won't have to deal with Staines this time around as he nurses injury. Ultimately, the Panthers rise to the top of the ladder has been mainly built on their defence and consistency so we feel this will be a fairly low scoring game at Panthers Stadium.
Broncos vs Dragons
Fri, Aug 21 7:55pm
Brisbane heads back to Suncorp Stadium on Friday night with more to prove after another awful second-half performance against the Raiders. It's the story of their season after playing a good 40 minutes, they just can't get the job done in the second half, which was the case last week in the 36-8 loss to Canberra. Things don't get much better for the hurting Brisbane side as forward pack leader Payne Haas has been suspended. To make matters worse, they've also lost Turpin and Flegler to injury. So they'll bring back Milford into the halves, Rhys Kennedy will get the start at prop and Jordan Kahu returns in the centres. Brodie Croft has also been dropped.
Paul McGregor's last game as Dragons coach ended on a positive note as his team produced an upset 14-12 victory over the Eels. At this stage, they can still make the finals but it's going to take a lot of help from other sides. So they'll just need to keep focused on winning and that starts with the reeling Broncos on Friday night. In team news, they do welcome back the go-forward of Paul Vaughan. He's named on the bench at this stage but it wouldn't surprise us if he starts the game.
It's hard for the Broncos to build consistency with so many structural team changes and Haas' suspension is a huge blow. So it's pretty easy to bet against the Broncos defence not showing up in the second half and that should see the Dragons take advantage in attack. They've scored 25 and 48 points in the last 2 meetings at Suncorp so we'll back them to beat that total again.
Dragons Over 24.5 Points
$1.78
