Canberra fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was teetering between crushing the hopes of a city on Friday night or heading to a “fairytale” NRL grand final.
Luckily for the Raiders’ revelation fullback, it turned out to be the latter.
Nicoll-Klokstad admits he’s never been more nervous than the final 10 minutes of Canberra’s preliminary final victory against South Sydney on Friday night.
The score was 10-6 with 10 minutes remaining when Souths halfback Adam Reynolds took an intercept and ran 60 metres before Nicoll-Klokstad made the try-saving tackle.
But the Raiders fullback held Reynolds down too long and was sin-binned for a professional foul.
The Rabbitohs looked set to use their man advantage and steal victory but Canberra found another gear and held on for a gutsy victory to book their first grand final ticket since 1994.
“I was so nervous, it’s probably the most nervous I’ve been in my whole life, I felt like a ton of bricks was on me,” Nicoll-Klodstad told AAP.
“But lucky enough I’ve got some pretty bloody tough teammates that got the job done.
“It’s been pretty evident throughout the season if you look at the games we’ve had to play with 12 men that we really lift and turn up for each other.
“Since day dot, I’ve come in here and I’ve seen something that I wanted to be a part of and that’s unique.
“You don’t get those defensive efforts and cover for each other unless you’ve got a really tight-knit group.”
Nicoll-Klokstad only arrived in Canberra a few weeks before the season started after he was released from the Warriors after playing seven games in two years.
The 24-year-old has played every game this season except for the final round when he was rested, and has scored 11 tries in 25 appearances.
“The dream continues. Words can’t describe what I’m feeling, we’re 80 minutes away from making this a fairytale season. I’m buzzing already,” Nicoll-Klokstad said.
“We can beat anyone. It starts with ourselves and we have to have that belief in ourselves and that’s what we’ve got from one to 35 throughout the squad.
“We’ve got that belief and we’ve had it since day dot. We’re one win away from making history.”
