NRL Round Las Vegas Recap: Knights Cause An Upset & Bulldogs Hang On

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It’s back!

The first instalment of Round 1 didn’t end without controversy, but what’s a week of footy without lines on still images, a formal complaint and more mentioning of the Bunker? After a long summer without the greatest game of all, the 2026 NRL season kicked off with a pair of exciting matches as the Las Vegas experiment extended another year¹ .

NRL Film Room - Round 1 Highlights

Quick Hits

The Feature Reel: Try of the Week

It took only ten minutes for Lachlan Galvin to lay on a try worthy of him wearing the #7 jersey. The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs failing to get a field goal attempt away with under four minutes to play highlighted his inexperience and the development still to come, but his try assist to Jacob Preston captures what he has to work with in the mean time.

What’s most impressive is what was likely to be an over-call after identifying the cue.

The Bulldogs have stacked their left edge with two spine players, and Clint Gutnerson responds by flipping his A defender to set that side first. Teams will take on that five with their seven attacking players more often than not² . However, the retreat late back, Galvin takes the cue.

He’s able to skip over to engage the back-stepping three-man with Preston inside two. By the numbers, the Bulldogs have an underlap, but Galvin’s speed across the A and B defender creates the advantage, and he’s good enough to make the right pass under pressure.

The vision to create opportunities for others is very encouraging for his prospects as a long-term halfback.

Round 1 NRL Notes

Knights v Cowboys

• Knights Halves: Unfortunately, the new-look Knights halves pairing lasted only 26 minutes before Fletcher Sharpe limped off with a knee injury. Even worse is how good Newcastle looked with the ball while he was on the field. Without a traditional halfback, Newcastle employed all of Sharpe, Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Brown as ball players depending on where the previous play-the-ball fell. They kept to channels across the field, which will be a major talking point at some stage, but it has potential given the players at Justin Holbrook’s disposal.

• Ponga’s Touches: While losing a half would typically see the fullback take on more touches, Newcastle replaced Sharpe with Sandon Smith - arguably the more natural fit at the position. So, Ponga’s 50 touches on Sunday are still notable given his year-on-year averages at the Knights and will be on the notepad when they next play in Round 2.

• Cowboys Struggle Inside 20: The Cowboys attack didn’t click in Round 1. We can put it down to rust as they have too much individual talent to read too much into the opener, but did play fairly sideways inside the Knights 20m line. While getting down into enemy territory is a win, scoring only three tries on 55 tackles inside the opposition 20m line is a cause for concern.

Bulldogs v Dragons

• Dragons Plan: We know the Bulldogs are an arm-wrestle team, one that will be patient with the ball and wait for the opposition to slip up. The Dragons might be taking the same approach in 2026. They beat the Bulldogs at their own game as the opening arm-wrestle went beyond six minutes before the Bulldogs broke.

• Atkinson’s Kicking Game: The painful references to Matt Burton and the NFL took away a lot of the shine on Daniel Atkinson’s kicking game. His long-range kicking already looks like it could be among the best in the NRL as he consistently hung the ball in the air and landed inside the 10-15m box on the Bulldogs line. You saw the difference late in the match when Atkinson was caught with the ball on the 4th tackle, forcing Kyle Flanagan to kick, who left the ball a lot shorter than his halves partner had been up to that point.

• Bulldogs In The Clutch: While Cameron Ciraldo will be happy with the result, he will no doubt spend some time breaking down the process late in the match after this one. With a prime opportunity to set up for a match-winning field goal with just over three minutes to play in regulation time, they never looked like getting one away. Cooper Cronk mentioned in commentary that there is still a place for trying to score in these scenarios, but it needs to be with the setup in mind. It’s a moment Galvin, in particular, will learn from moving forward.

Player Spotlight

It shouldn’t have come to him stepping up, but Stephen Crichton’s field goal capped off an excellent season-opener for the Bulldogs captain.

He dusted off Valentine Holmes to score one-off a scrum, threatened down the left edge with and without the ball in a variety of shapes throughout the 80 minutes, and came up with the biggest play of the game in the 89th.

Latrell Mitchell has moved back into the centres and will no doubt quickly be recognised as one of the best in the game, but Crichton is the benchmark at the moment.

The Pipeline - Payton Tarau, South Sydney Rabbitohs

Looking beyond the bright lights of the NRL to the lower grades, one player caught my eye this week.

While I follow the competition, a Harold Matthews player here will be rare. However, having seen Payton Tarau play in person a few weeks ago, and with what he dished up in Round 4, I’ll make the exception with New South Wales and Queensland Cup still a week away.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs halfback plays with a lot more time than anybody else on the field. He’s big, strong and a smart player for his age and is one to watch coming through the grades over the next few years.

Member Mailbag

Now that footy is back and we have two games to start painting a picture of what might be to come throughout the 2026 NRL season, send through your predictions ahead of the rest of Round 1 next week.

1  The contract runs until 2028, but based on the crowd and the relatively low-budget production from the major broadcaster, I can’t rule out somewhere different playing host after next year.

2  It is something to keep an eye on, though… From the middle of the field, it’s a wide space for 4 or 4.5 defenders to cover following a strong carry.