St George Illawarra 13–12 Wests Tigers — Preliminary Final, 2010 NRL Finals Series
25 Sep 2010 · ANZ Stadium, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 71,212
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 2010 NRL finals series: St George Illawarra 13–12 Wests Tigers, at ANZ Stadium, Sydney, NSW on 25 Sep 2010.
Sourcing caveat: Soward's field goal was reported only by The Roar's narrative match report, not explicitly by rugbyleagueproject.org's summary; the points arithmetic (13 total) only balances if both the 2 conversions and the field goal are counted, which supports its inclusion.
Scoring timeline
| 17′ | Wests Tigers — try, Lote Tuqiri |
| 28′ | St George Illawarra — try, Jeremy Smith |
| 36′ | Wests Tigers — try, Robert Lui |
| 50′ | St George Illawarra — try, Jason Nightingale |
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: Jeremy Smith 28'; Jason Nightingale 50' Goals: Jamie Soward (2/2 conversions, 1 field goal 74') |
| Wests Tigers | Tries: Lote Tuqiri 17'; Robert Lui 36' Goals: Benji Marshall (2/2 conversions) |
Team sheets
| St George Illawarra | Wests Tigers | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darius Boyd | Fullback | Mitch Brown | 1 |
| 2 | Brett Morris | Wing | Lote Tuqiri | 2 |
| 3 | Mark Gasnier | Centre | Blake Ayshford | 3 |
| 4 | Matt Cooper | Centre | Chris Lawrence | 4 |
| 5 | Jason Nightingale | Wing | Beau Ryan | 5 |
| 6 | Jamie Soward | Five-Eighth | Benji Marshall | 6 |
| 7 | Ben Hornby (c) | Halfback | Robert Lui | 7 |
| 8 | Neville Costigan | Prop | Bryce Gibbs | 17 |
| 9 | Dean Young | Hooker | Robbie Farah (c) | 9 |
| 10 | Michael Weyman | Prop | Keith Galloway | 10 |
| 11 | Beau Scott | Second Row | Andrew Fifita | 19 |
| 12 | Ben Creagh | Second Row | Gareth Ellis | 12 |
| 13 | Jeremy Smith | Lock | Chris Heighington | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Nathan Fien | Liam Fulton | 11 | |
| 15 | Trent Merrin | Ben Murdoch-Masila | 14 | |
| 16 | Matt Prior | Daniel Fitzhenry | 15 | |
| 20 | Jon Green | Simon Dwyer | 16 | |
| Wayne Bennett | Coach | Tim Sheens | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Shayne Hayne and Ben Cummins (two-referee system) |
Match report
With a Grand Final berth on the line, Wests Tigers came out firing at ANZ Stadium, with Lote Tuqiri and Robert Lui scoring either side of a Jeremy Smith try for the Dragons, leaving the Tigers 12-6 ahead at the break. The Dragons, minor premiers under coach Wayne Bennett, ground their way back into the contest in the second half. Jamie Soward, pulling the strings all night, set up Jason Nightingale's try in the 50th minute to level the scores at 12-12, before nailing a clutch field goal in the 74th minute to snatch the lead and, ultimately, the win. Robert Lui had impressed with his early playmaking for the Tigers, but it was Soward's composure under pressure, orchestrating the comeback and landing the match-winning one-pointer, that proved decisive. The 13-12 result sent St George Illawarra through to their first Grand Final since 1999, where they would go on to defeat the Sydney Roosters for the premiership, while the Tigers' finals campaign ended agonisingly by a single point.