Someone once said that “remember when” is the lowest form of conversation. That might be true. It also might’ve just been a way to get a guy (who you maybe to kill later on a boat) to shut up, but I digress.
14 years ago this week, on a sunny, Sunday afternoon at Homebush, the Canterbury Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters played out one of the many classic1 Toyota Cup games.
A game so Toyota Cup and ridiculous, that it ended 40-all and was only the second game that round to see 80 points scored.2 It featured 11 future NRL players, eight internationals, three State of Origin players, an All Black, a Wallaby, a (junior) Springbok and two, yes two, hotel shitters.
The match
Heading into the contest, the Roosters were 1-1 with a win over the Wests Tigers in Round 2, while the Bulldogs were winless, having given up leads late in both games. Will it happen a third time?3
In a match that saw 80 points and 14 tries scored, the first didn’t come until the 11th minute when Roosters’ backrower Ethan Lowe scored. The Dogs regained control not long after, taking a solid 24-12 lead into half-time with tries to Pakisonasi Afu, Lachlan Burr, Josh Jackson, and Dale Finucane.
The Roosters cut the deficit quickly after the break when bench prop Olomanu Usini scored in the 42nd minute. As was the case for most of the game, the Bulldogs quickly responded. Three minutes later, Josh Gill extended the lead, charging down a kick and running 65 metres to make it 30-16.
The Tricolours rallied and scored back-to-back tries for the first time, with Blake Williamson and Kheirallah both scoring from Brad Murray kicks, cutting the lead to two. Again, the Dogs responded, refusing to blow another lead, with Lazarus Mulu scoring a minute later and Marty Taupau crossing in the 71st minute. Taupau ran for 238 metres in this game. With six minutes left, they led 40-28.
But they did blow another lead as Anthony Gelling scored in the 74th minute and Hughie Stanley in the 76th, for the 14th and final try of the game. Brad Murray converted the try to level it at 40-all. Remarkably, no one scored in the final two minutes and the game ended in a draw.
Unfortunately, this match did not air on Fox Sports in 2010, so footage is non-existent. The Wayback Machine came through in the clutch with match reports from the Bulldogs’ site and NRL.com providing some details. It, kind of weirdly, did not get written about in the Toyota Cup section in the following week’s Big League. The fixture that was shown on Fox that morning was the Broncos’ 30-18 win over the Warriors at Suncorp, which kicked off an hour earlier.
In the NRL match that followed, the Bulldogs thrashed the Roosters 60-12, with Josh Morris scoring four tries and Ben Barba bagging three.
Canterbury 40 (Pakisonasi Afu, Lachlan Burr, Dale Finucane, Josh Gill, Josh Jackson, Lazarus Mulu, Marty Taupau tries; Aidan Sezer 6 goals) drew with Sydney 40 (Mark Kheirallah 2, Anthony Gelling, Ethan Lowe, Hughie Stanley, Olomanu Usini, Blake Williamson tries; Brad Murray 6 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Ref: Gavin Morris.
The aftermath
This game would be the only point Canterbury would pick up during the opening seven rounds of 2010. They didn’t win their first game until Round 8 vs. Parramatta. Where did they finish? THIRD. They lost just one of their next 18 games. They met the Roosters again in the semis, knocking them out 24-22, before being eliminated in the prelim the following weekend by the Warriors.
Fullback Nathan Massey, who didn’t play in the 40-all draw, finished as their top try scorer with 18 in 20 games, while Tapau and Aidan Sezer were named in the Team of the Year and Andrew Patmore was named Coach of the Year.
The Roosters were solid throughout the rest of the regular season, finishing fifth with 14 wins, nine losses and a draw. Their season ended on a four-game losing streak as they were eliminated from the finals in straight sets. Kheirallah finished as their top try scorer, with 20 in 19 games. They had one player in the Team of the Year, halfback Brad Murray, who was also named the club’s Player of the Year in his final season of Toyota Cup.
The players
Five of the Dogs’ 17 that day went on to play in the NRL – Aidan Sezer, Marty Taupau, Lachlan Burr, Josh Jackson, and Dale Finucane. All except for Sezer, who debuted for the Titans, made their debuts with the club. For Taupau, it was that season, just two weeks after this game. He came off the bench in a 30-24 loss to the Warriors. It was his only NRL appearance in 2010. Finucane, Jackson, and Sezer all debuted in 2012, with Burr doing so in 2013.
Winger Chris Centrone and front rowers Pakisonasi Afu and Judah Lavulo all played international rugby league. Centrone, who spent time with Wyong and Toulouse, represented Italy at the 2013 and 2017 World Cups. Lavulo was also there in 2013, playing two games for the United States. Afu, who was contracted to the Roosters in 2016, played two Tests for Tonga in 2009.
The most interesting names in the lineup are Union internationals Nehe Milner-Skudder and Lopeti Timani. Milner-Skudder played two seasons for the Dogs’ NYC side before returning to New Zealand and rugby union with Manawatu in 2012. In 2015, while playing for the Hurricanes, he made his debut for the All Blacks and later that year scored a try in their World Cup final win over Australia.
Tongan-born Timani also played two seasons with the Dogs before his return to Union, where he would go on to play 12 Tests for the Wallabies. He, of course, did not win a World Cup. He later played a couple of Tests for Tonga. His older brother, Sitaleki, had spent time in the Sharks system a few years earlier before also returning to Union.
Of the Roosters’ lineup that day, six would play in the NRL – Mark Kheirallah, Cheyse Blair, Jack Littlejohn, Ethan Lowe, Sam Brunton and Anthony Gelling.
Brunton and Kheirallah were the only two who debuted for the Roosters. Kheirallah played 11 seasons for Toulouse, two for Featherstone and represented France at the 2017 World Cup, scoring a try against Australia.
Blair, an Australian Schoolboy in 2009, debuted for the Eels in 2012 and is perhaps most well-known for wearing a long-sleeved jersey while playing for Melbourne in 2016. Jack Littlejohn bounced around reserve grade before making his debut for Manly in 2014. Lowe was the most successful of the bunch, joining the Cowboys in 2013, winning a premiership in 2015 and representing Queensland in 2019.
Now we get to the shitters.
In September 2010, a year after then-Rooster Nate Myles was suspended six matches and fined $50K for shitting in a corridor, Sam Brunton and Anthony Gelling were sacked by the club for shitting on the tables and floor of Townsville’s Holiday Inn.4 One source at the hotel called the players “feral”. A cleaner said of the rooms, “disgusting, absolutely disgusting”. The Roosters issued a statement basically saying it “was just a prank, bro” and claimed the incident didn’t involve alcohol, which makes it even more unhinged.
Two shitting incidents in two years? A club culture of shitting in hotels? What an era for the Roosters.
Brunton had made his NRL debut earlier that year, playing three games, but never got close to first grade again, spending time with Mounties in the NSW Cup. Gelling had a successful career in England, winning a Grand Final and World Club Challenge with Wigan. He made his NRL debut in 2018 with the Warriors against, you guessed it, the Roosters in Round 4. Both represented the Cook Islands at the 2013 World Cup, with Gelling also playing in 2017.
Lastly, the side also featured South African product JP du Plessis on the wing. The Roosters went on a Saffa scouting trip the year before, bringing du Plessis and his South African Schoolboys teammate Brian Skosana to the club. Du Plessis played just six NYC games before returning to Union in 2011 with the Melbourne Rebels. Skosana also played six games a year later before returning to South Africa.
Where are they now
Aidan Sezer (Tigers), Marty Taupau (Broncos) and Dale Finucane (Sharks) are still playing in the NRL, with all three taking the field last weekend.
Ethan Lowe, after two seasons at Souths, retired due to a neck injury in 2020.
Lachlan Burr, who was with the Cowboys at the time, retired in February 2022 due to a hip injury.
Anthony Gelling retired in June 2022 after a mid-season Test for the Cook Islands. He returned later that year to play in the World Cup before retiring again halfway through it and going home to New Zealand.
Josh Jackson retired at the end of the 2022 season after a 241-game career for the Bulldogs. He now coaches their Jersey Flegg Cup side.
Cheyse Blair won the Gold Coast A Grade Grand Final in 2023 with Southport, alongside the likes of Michael Oldfield and Sione Katoa.
Nehe Milner-Skudder seems to have last played for Manawatu in the National Provincial Championship in 2023.
Lopeti Timani is currently playing for Cardiff Rugby in Europe’s United Rugby Championship.
Something a little different this week. A much shorter version of this was originally going to be in the newsletter before I ditched that entirely and wrote this instead. Hope you enjoy it. Maybe a regular newsletter again next week, or just some quick hit updates, we’ll see.
Yes, classic.
Two days earlier, the Wests Tigers beat Parramatta 56-24. A week before, 90 points were scored when Canberra beat Brisbane 58-32.
Yes
This was the same hotel that Brad Fittler, Roosters coach at the time, got drunk at a year earlier and tried to enter someone else’s room half-naked.