NRL 2022 Round 6 – Betting tips & Predictions

Round 6 of the NRL includes five days of rugby league action, kicking off with a Raiders vs Cowboys matchup on Thursday. Two games will take place on Good Friday, before perhaps the game of the round headlines Saturday evening when the Storm host the Sharks at AAMI Park in a top of the table clash. It all concludes on Monday afternoon when the in-form Eels take on the Tigers, and we’ve previewed all eight games set to take place over these five days on this page.

Canberra Raiders vs North Queensland Cowboys

April 14 – GIO Stadium, Canberra – 7.50pm

Round 6 of the NRL kicks off with a clash between the Raiders and the Cowboys, two teams who have endured a similar first five weeks of the season. Each of them won two of their first three as they look to work their way up the ladder following bottom eight finishes last year, but have since each lost their past. For the Raiders, those losses were expected given they were coming up against first Manly and then the Storm, but they would have liked to be significantly more competitive than they were in those two games. The Cowboys were flogged by the Roosters a couple of weeks ago before losing by just a point to the Warriors last week, but like the Raiders they would have been hoping for better given their impressive performances earlier in the season. These two teams have already met this year, when the Cowboys won 26-6 in Round 2, but that early season form has waned and, on Canberra’s home turf, the Raiders might be able to make amends for that result.

Bet on the Raiders to win @ $1.60 (Bet365)

South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Canterbury Bulldogs

April 15 – Accor Stadium, Sydney – 4.00pm

Good Friday football begins at 4.00pm this year, when the Rabbitohs welcome the Bulldogs to Accor Stadium. The Bunnies did what they needed to do last week to get the chocolates against the Dragons, running out 24-12 winners and avoid slumping to a record of 1-4. They will be expecting to be able to even their win/loss ledger this weekend, with the Bulldogs having lost four in a row following their opening round victory. In fairness the last three of those losses have come against the Sea Eagles, Storm and Panthers, and it doesn’t get much easier over the coming weeks. It’s a brutal sequence of games for a team trying to demonstrate some improvement after winning just three games last year, but nonetheless they will have been hoping to be more competitive than they have been against the best teams following a number of positive acquisitions in the off-season. They might be able to challenge the Rabbitohs a little more than they have the Panthers and Storm the last couple of weeks, but the Bunnies should still be too good.

Bet on the Rabbitohs to win @ $1.25 (PlayUp)

Penrith Panthers vs Brisbane Broncos

April 15 – BlueBet Stadium, Penrith – 7.55pm

The Panthers have looked every bit a deserved Premiership favourite so far this year, winning all five of their games to date, and the bulk of them with absolute ease. Their latest victim was the Bulldogs, who they demolished to the tune of 20 points last Sunday – their fourth win by 14 points or more already this year. Next on the agenda for the reigning Premiers is the Broncos, who have demonstrated some improvement at points throughout this season but have nonetheless lost three games in a row. Their latest defeat yielded plenty of positives, however, with the Roosters only being able to hold them off by four points. That sort of performance would see them at least avoid too much of a flogging at the hands of the Panthers, but few teams if any seem capable of actually beating Penrith at the moment, and the Broncos certainly aren’t one of them.

Bet on the Panthers to win @ $1.10 (Bet365)

Manly Sea Eagles vs Gold Coast Titans

April 16 – 4 Pines Park, Sydney – 5.30pm

After consecutive defeats to start the season at the hands of two very good teams, the Sea Eagles have worked their way into winning form and have been comprehensive in the last two of those victories. After disposing of the Raiders by 19 points two weeks ago, they demolished the Knights last weekend, conceding just six points for the second successive game and putting 30 of their own on the board. It’s unlikely that they’ll be able win so convincingly this weekend, however, as they welcome a Titans team in the midst of an extraordinary run of close games to 4 Pines Park. Gold Coast continued their run of alternating wins and losses so far this season when they went down by six points to the Eels last weekend; incredibly, that was the biggest margin of any game they’ve played in this season. The Sea Eagles might be the best team they’ve come up against this year, but they have shown a propensity to play up or down to the level of the team they’re playing thus far in 2022. If that continues we should have an exciting game, but Manly might just be able to sneak over the line.

Bet on the Sea Eagles to win @ $1.55 (BoomBet)

Melbourne Storm vs Cronulla Sharks

April 16 – AAMI Park, Melbourne – 7.35pm

The Panthers might be deserved Premiership favourites, but having won four of their first five the Storm are sitting right on their heels. They weren’t at their best over the first three weeks of the year, losing to the Eels and only just escaping a game against the Rabbitohs, but they’ve clicked into gear in the last couple. It begun with a 44-0 hiding of the Bulldogs and continued with a 30-16 win against the Raiders last week, meaning the Sharks will need to be at their best to get close this weekend. It will be a terrific test for Cronulla, who have won four games in a row after losing a close one in Round 1 to Canberra, and while none of those wins have come against teams of the calibre of the Storm, you can only beat the teams in front of you and they have done that and then some. In their last three weeks they have a cumulative score of 84-16 against their opponents, and their improvement this year is plain to see. They might not quite be good enough to defeat Melbourne at AAMI Park just yet, but expect them to give it a far better crack than they might have 12 months ago.

Bet on the Storm to win @ $1.39 (Palmerbet)

Sydney Roosters vs New Zealand Warriors

April 17 – Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney – 2.00pm

It wasn’t the most convincing of performances by the Roosters last weekend, but they managed to sneak over the line by four points against the Broncos to gain their third win of the season. That 3-2 record is enough to have them sitting in fifth place, and with a home matchup against the Warriors this weekend they are a chance to jump inside the top four. New Zealand have actually been solid in recent weeks, winning three games in a row to get their own win/loss ledger in the positive as well. These two sides, however, have vastly different expectations on their shoulders for the rest of the season. The Warriors’ wins have come against likely bottom eight sides, and with a number of tough games to come they will likely begin to tumble down the ladder, beginning this weekend.

Bet on the Roosters to win @ $1.20 (Palmerbet)

St. George Illawarra Dragons vs Newcastle Knights

April 17 – WIN Stadium, Wollongong – 4.05pm

It hasn’t been a great few weeks for either of these sides. Both started the season positively, recording wins in Round 1, and the Knights were in fact one of the stories of the beginning of the season, recording two big wins in the first two weeks. Since then, however, things have gone downhill for both sides. The Dragons have lost four in a row and haven’t been competitive in the past three of them, a period which included a 36-12 loss to the Sharks and a 48-14 defeat at the hands of the Eels. The Knights, for their part, have lost their last three by at least 18 points each, but they can at least point to the quality of the opposition as a justification; those losses came to the Panthers, Storm and Sea Eagles. Though they weren’t even competitive in those games, Newcastle have at least shown some semblance of form this year, and can get back on the winners’ list with an upset against the hapless Dragons.

Bet on the Knights to win @ $2.50 (BoomBet)

Parramatta Eels vs Wests Tigers

April 18 – CommBank Stadium, Sydney – 4.00pm

The Eels continued their strong start to the season last Saturday, defeating the Titans for the second time in a month. That was their fourth win of the year, with their only loss coming by just two points to the plucky Sharks and their wins including a four-point defeat of the Storm. They look every bit a top four side and Premiership contender, and they should be able to solidify that with a comfortable win this weekend. The Tigers remain winless after five games in what is looming as a long season, though they have at least been competitive in a couple of those games. That wasn’t the case last weekend, however, when they went down by 26 points to the Sharks, and it’s very possible that they will suffer a similar fate at the hands of the Eels on Easter Monday.

Bet on the Eels to win @ $1.07 (PlayUp)