{"id":141638,"date":"2021-10-09T21:40:32","date_gmt":"2021-10-09T21:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=141638"},"modified":"2021-10-09T23:57:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T23:57:04","slug":"ex-nrl-star-inspires-super-league-gf-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=141638","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NRL star inspires Super League GF victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Maloney<\/a>'s professional rugby league swansong failed to produce a fairytale as St Helens<\/a>, spearheaded by former NRL<\/a> star Kevin Naiqama, edged his Catalans Dragons<\/a> outfit to win the Super League grand final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The France-based Dragons' bid to become the first overseas team to win the Super League came up just short when they lost to St Helens 12-10 in the decider.<\/p>\n

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St Helens became only the second team to win a third grand final in succession since the English rugby league championship became the Super League in 1996.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Former Knight, Panther and Tiger Naiqama, wearing St Helens colours for the final time before returning to Australia, delivered the perfect leaving gift with a try in each half at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Trailing 6-4 at half-time, Catalans regained the lead with their only try through second-rower Mike McMeeken from Josh Drinkwater's lofted kick while the Saints were down to 12 men. Maloney, the oldest player to score a point of any kind in a Super League grand final at 35, converted for 10-6.<\/p>\n

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But the clincher by Naiqama from a Jonny Lomax grubber kick came 15 minutes from full-time, converted by former Panther and Cowboy Lachlan Coote, another playing his last match for the Saints.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

St Helens coach Kristian Woolf's side completed the league and cup double for the second time.<\/p>\n

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"It hurts," Maloney said.<\/p>\n

"I'm shattered for the boys. We've done so much, we've worked so hard, but they were just too good.<\/p>\n

"You never play the perfect game of footy… You'll always look at, 'What if this, what is that?' That never goes away unfortunately."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Maloney's professional rugby league swansong failed to produce a fairytale as St Helens, spearheaded by former NRL star Kevin Naiqama, edged his Catalans Dragons […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141640,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141638\/revisions\/141640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}