The first game on Saturday for NRL Finals Week 1 is between Cronulla Sharks and Nth Queensland Cowboys. The opening bounce is set to commence at 4pm with the game to be played at Allianz Stadium. The favourite for the match is home team Cronulla Sharks. View our preview and teams for the game between Cronulla Sharks and Nth Queensland Cowboys.

Allianz Stadium

Saturday 4pm

Cronulla Sharks $1.70 vs Nth Queensland Cowboys $2.20 at Sportsbet Australia get a $250 FREE BET on this match

Cronulla Sharks $1.70 vs Nth Queensland Cowboys $2.15 at Luxbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match

Odds Comparison by NRL Odds:

Cronulla Sharks	1.70	1.72	1.70	1.72	1.70	1.72
Nth Queensland Cowboys	2.20	2.15	2.15	2.15	2.20	2.10

Preview:

The first of the elimination finals sees Cronulla, who finished 5th, up against the resurgent Cowboys who rapidly climbed the ladder in the latter part of the regular season to finish grab 8th.

Both teams are coming off big wins last week.

For the home-side it was a 38 – 18 win over Canberra, without several big name players lining up. Some poor play in the final quarter of the match from the Raiders enabled Cronulla to cross for three tried and blow the score-line out.

The Cowboys continued their remarkable run of good form and easily accounted for West Tigers, 50 – 22. It was the Cowboys sixth straight win.

Cronulla welcome back Paul Gallen and Todd Carney this week and just in time as they’ll require all hands on deck to counter a rampaging Cowboys.

The Sharks were afforded opportunities last week against the Raiders which may not be so forth-coming against a better quality opponent.

No other team comes into the finals with a greater head of steam than the Cowboys and that’s not to be underestimated.

They accounted for the Sharks back in round 25, 29 – 18 making it three straight wins over their opponents and taking their record 5 – 2 since 2010.

Cronulla need to improve on last week’s effort here and their performances have been a little inconsistent over the past month. At the current market (Cronulla $1.72, Cowboys $2.18) more than happy to jump on the Cowboys’ bandwagon.

Teams:

Cronulla Sharks:
Michael Gordon, Sosaia Feki, Ben Pomeroy, Jonathan Wright, Beau Ryan, Todd Carney, Jeff Robson, Andrew Fifita, John Morris, Sam Tagataese, Luke Lewis, Wade Graham, Paul Gallen (c). Interchange (from): Isaac De Gois, Chris Heighington, Jayson Bukuya, Anthony Tupou, Bryce Gibbs, Ben Ross

Nth Queensland Cowboys:
Matthew Bowen, Wayne Ulugia, Brent Tate, Kane Linnett, Antonio Winterstein, Johnathan Thurston (c), Robert Lui, Matthew Scott (c), Rory Kostjasyn, James Tamou, Gavin Cooper, Glenn Hall, Joel Riethmuller. Interchange (from): Jayden Hodges, Tariq Sims, Scott Bolton, Jason Taumalolo, Ashton Sims

Cowboy Scott confident of playing Sharks

North Queensland enforcer Matt Scott is confident he’ll lead the Cowboys into Saturday’s NRL knockout final against Cronulla despite a broken finger.

In a major boost to the Cowboys, Scott chances of making a speedy comeback rose on Thursday as he took part in training in Townsville.

North Queensland’s co-captain broke his middle finger against the Sharks early in their 31-18 win two weeks ago and was originally ruled out for three weeks.

But Scott said he expected to play after coming through Thursday’s session – 10 days after surgery – without problem.

“I’m pretty confident (of playing),” the Queensland prop told Fox Sports.

“I did most of the session. I can catch the ball okay. Everything works pretty well, and I did a couple of tackles.

“I’m not 100 per cent obviously. I still have to talk to the doc and he has to see how it recovers after today and we’ll probably make a decision tomorrow.”

Scott denied the club would wait until game day as they needed to give his replacement, likely to be Ashton Sims, time to prepare.

Sims’ brother Tariq has little doubt the renowned hard man will play.

“It would be great to have him out there,” the forward said.

“I know it was a pretty serious break but anyone who knows Matt knows that he just wants to play football and a little broken finger wouldn’t stop him.”

Saturday’s elimination final will end a heart-breaking run for Tariq Sims after the 23-year-old was robbed of play-off appearances in the past two seasons due to two different leg fractures.