St George Illawarra 12–20 Wests Tigers — Preliminary Final, 2005 NRL Finals Series
24 Sep 2005 · Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 41,260
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 2005 NRL finals series: St George Illawarra 12–20 Wests Tigers, at Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW on 24 Sep 2005.
Sourcing caveat: No try-scoring minutes were found for this fixture. St George Illawarra started Ben Creagh in place of the regular Ashton Sims in the second row this match.
Scorers
| St George Illawarra | Tries: Barrett; Naiqama Goals: Ennis (2/2 conversions) |
| Wests Tigers | Tries: Marshall; Halatau; Halatau; Heighington Goals: Hodgson (2/4 conversions) |
Team sheets
| St George Illawarra | Wests Tigers | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clint Greenshields | Fullback | Brett Hodgson | 1 |
| 2 | Colin Best | Wing | Daniel Fitzhenry | 2 |
| 3 | Mark Gasnier | Centre | Shane Elford | 3 |
| 4 | Matt Cooper | Centre | Paul Whatuira | 4 |
| 5 | Wes Naiqama | Wing | Pat Richards | 5 |
| 6 | Trent Barrett (c) | Five-Eighth | Benji Marshall | 6 |
| 7 | Ben Hornby | Halfback | Scott Prince (c) | 7 |
| 8 | Luke Bailey | Prop | Anthony Laffranchi | 8 |
| 9 | Dean Young | Hooker | Robbie Farah | 9 |
| 10 | Jason Ryles | Prop | John Skandalis | 10 |
| 11 | Ben Creagh | Second Row | Ben Galea | 11 |
| 12 | Lance Thompson | Second Row | Mark O'Neill | 12 |
| 13 | Shaun Timmins | Lock | Dene Halatau | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Michael Henderson | Liam Fulton | 14 | |
| 15 | Justin Poore | Chris Heighington | 15 | |
| 16 | Corey Payne | Bryce Gibbs | 16 | |
| 17 | Michael Ennis | Todd Payten | 17 | |
| Nathan Brown | Coach | Tim Sheens | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Tim Mander |
Match report
In front of over 41,000 fans, the Tigers took control early and led 16-6 at halftime — a much bigger gap than the eventual 8-point final margin suggests. Dene Halatau was the standout, scoring twice from lock, while Benji Marshall and Chris Heighington also crossed. The heavily-fancied Dragons fought back through Trent Barrett and Wes Naiqama tries but ran out of time, sending the Tigers through to their first-ever Grand Final.