St George Illawarra 28–22 Cronulla-Sutherland — Qualifying Final, 2005 NRL Finals Series
10 Sep 2005 · WIN Stadium, Wollongong, NSW · Attendance: 19,608
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Final, 2005 NRL finals series: St George Illawarra 28–22 Cronulla-Sutherland, at WIN Stadium, Wollongong, NSW on 10 Sep 2005.
Sourcing caveat: Young's and Barrett's try minutes were given only relatively ("two sets later", "three minutes later") rather than as absolute clock times in the source consulted — not shown here rather than presented as precise. Cronulla's Nigel Vagana (normally a centre) wore #3 as starting five-eighth and Beau Scott wore #17 as a starting centre (not a bench number) this match — confirmed genuine flexible squad numbering for this era, not an extraction error.
Scoring timeline
| 12′ | St George Illawarra — try, Best |
| 12′ | Cronulla-Sutherland — try, Scott |
| 48′ | St George Illawarra — try, Best |
| 66′ | Cronulla-Sutherland — try, Vagana |
| 75′ | St George Illawarra — try, Naiqama |
| 78′ | Cronulla-Sutherland — try, Gallen |
Tries with a sourced minute, in order scored, with the conversion kicked/missed alongside each one where source data lets us match a kicker to that specific try. Tries whose exact minute isn't recorded in available sources appear in the Scorers table below but not here; goal tallies we can't attribute to one specific try are shown as descriptive text in Scorers rather than guessed into this timeline.
Scorers
| St George Illawarra | Tries: Best 12'; Best 48'; Young; Barrett; Naiqama 75' Goals: Ennis (4/4 conversions) |
| Cronulla-Sutherland | Tries: Scott 12'; Simmons; Vagana 66'; Gallen 78' Goals: Covell (3/4 conversions) |
Team sheets
| St George Illawarra | Cronulla-Sutherland | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clint Greenshields | Fullback | David Peachey | 1 |
| 2 | Colin Best | Wing | David Simmons | 2 |
| 3 | Mark Gasnier | Centre | Nigel Vagana | 3 |
| 4 | Matt Cooper | Centre | Paul Mellor | 4 |
| 5 | Wes Naiqama | Wing | Luke Covell | 5 |
| 6 | Trent Barrett (c) | Five-Eighth | Brett Kimmorley (c) | 7 |
| 7 | Ben Hornby | Halfback | Keith Galloway | 8 |
| 8 | Luke Bailey | Prop | Kevin Kingston | 9 |
| 9 | Dean Young | Hooker | Danny Nutley | 10 |
| 10 | Jason Ryles | Prop | Phillip Leuluai | 11 |
| 11 | Ashton Sims | Second Row | Phil Bailey | 12 |
| 12 | Lance Thompson | Second Row | Paul Gallen | 13 |
| 13 | Shaun Timmins | Lock | Beau Scott | 17 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Michael Henderson | Adam Dykes | 6 | |
| 15 | Justin Poore | Clifford Manua | 14 | |
| 16 | Corey Payne | Reece Williams | 15 | |
| 17 | Michael Ennis | Matt Hilder | 16 | |
| Nathan Brown | Coach | Stuart Raper | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Tony Archer |
Match report
Massive underdogs Cronulla stunned the home crowd by leading 6-4 at halftime after early tries to Scott and (before the break) Best's reply. St George Illawarra seized control after the break with a Colin Best double either side of a Dean Young and Trent Barrett try, but the Sharks refused to fold, with Nigel Vagana and a late Paul Gallen try keeping the margin at 6 points until fulltime.