FLASHBACK FRIDAY: VAEALIKI TRY SWINGS 2000 QUALIFYING FINAL
As the 2024 NRL finals get underway tonight, Flashback Friday relives a bizarre, memorable try by a Canterbury product that spearheaded Parramatta Eels’ 2000 qualifying final upset of Sydney Roosters.
The youthful, seventh-placed Eels approached the do-or-die assignment against the seventh-placed Roosters as rank outsiders.
The Eels had fought back from an early deficit to lead 10-8 at halftime, when at the end of the opening set of the second half when Roosters fullback Luke Phillips spilled a straightforward clearing kick. But instead of cleaning up the scraps, Phillips produced one of the all-time NRL finals howlers by running past the ball in exasperation, expecting a scrum to be packed.
Eels centre David Vaealiki played to the whistle and toed the ball through to score an easy try, setting the underdogs on a path to a 32-8 boilover as the floodgates opened.
Sydenham Swans junior Vaealiki was a Junior Kiwi in 1998, while the Linwood High student set a record as Canterbury’s youngest provincial rep that year when he played against West Coast at the tender age of 17 years and 199 days.
Infamously slipping through Auckland Warriors’ net and signing with Parramatta, he made six NRL appearances in 1999 – including the Eels’ preliminary final loss to Melbourne Storm – as an 18-year-old. At the end of the season he captained the Junior Kiwis in a hard-fought 2-0 series loss to a Junior Kangaroos side boasting eight future Australian internationals.
Vaealiki eventually cemented a backline spot with the Eels during the second half of 2000, going on a tryscoring rampaging that culminated in his gift finals four-pointer – his eighth try in seven games.
Parramatta’s charge came to an end via a tight prelim loss to Brisbane two weeks later, while he played the first of seven Tests for New Zealand at the World Cup later that year. Vaealiki was a mainstay in the minor premiership-winning Eels’ line-up that was eventually stunned by Newcastle in 2001 grand final.
Vaealiki later had stints with Wigan and Manly before his professional career wrapped up at French rugby union club SC Albi.
Burnham Chevaliers junior Siua Wong (Sydney Roosters) and West Coast product and Halswell Hornets junior player Griffin Neame (North Queensland Cowboys) have been named to line up in this weekend’s NRL finals matches.
