NRL 2021: NRL Fantasy, winners & losers, Round 5

Author: Lone Scout NRL Fantasy guru
Timestamp: Mon 12 Apr 2021, 06:11 AM

Titans forward David Fifita joined this year's 100-club while Nathan Cleary's incredible run of scores continued in a high-scoring fifth round of NRL Fantasy for 2021.

Winners

A maiden career hat-trick propelled Titans wrecking ball David Fifita to 104 points to lead off a high-scoring round in NRL Fantasy – particularly for those that captained him.

Latrell Mitchell monstered his way to 95 against the Broncos and is now averaging almost the same as James Tedesco (44) through five rounds.

The second best of the likely captaincy options, and by far the most popular, was Nathan Cleary (93). The Panthers halfback looked on track for his first middling score of the year before plucking a long-range intercept try out of nowhere to keep his season average at a remarkable 89.7.

Sea Eagles halfback Daly Cherry-Evans matched Cleary's 93 as he guided his side to their first win of 2021 and bounced back from a disappointing 43 a week earlier.

Get Caught Up: Round 5 must-see moments

Eels forward Isaiah Papali'i (88) was again phenomenal despite his side's loss and is approaching $200k in price rises.

Tyrone Peachey (69) was another who bounced back in a big way from his 31 last week, playing the full 80 in part due to an early injury to Phil Sami but remarkably not being moved out wide until very late in the contest.

It was a good week for cash cows with Sean O'Sullivan (73) and Josh Schuster (69) crossing for tries in the early Friday game while Roosters rookie Sam Walker (51) shrugged off some rough treatment to win the game against Cronulla for his side and propel his score to 51.

Match Highlights: Wests Tigers v Cowboys

Those still carrying Jake Averillo enjoyed his breakout 63 against the Storm.

Ryan Papenhuyzen didn't match his four-try heroics from last week but his 70 keeps his average well above every other WFB this year so far.

Payne Haas, Jack Wighton (both 77), Joe Ofahengaue and George Jennings (both 72), Drew Hutchison (71) and Adam Doueihi and Jazz Tevaga (both 70) also went large in round five.

Losers

Tino Fa'asuamaleaui's 80 last week may have been a false dawn; the powerful prop was shifted wide for much of the game after the Sami injury and finished with just 22.

There were some below-par scores for the likes of Connor Watson (37), Jordan Riki (36), Brandon Smith (an illness-affected 31 in 43 minutes), Jordan Rapana (25) and James Roberts (8).

Damien Cook's up-and-down scoring continued with just 44 and an early shower while Jayden Brailey's 58 is one of the highest ever scores to feature in the bottom half of one of these articles but was a disappointment to those who captained him.

In fact the entire Knights pack scored well below their season averages with Tyson Frizell (40), Mitch Barnett (38), David Klemmer (35) and Dan Saifiti (33) all struggling against the Titans.