NRL 2011 - Round 5 Previews (Heritage Round)

North Queensland v Gold Coast

It all moves along so quickly. Round 5 is upon us and with only weeks until the representative season and some clubs already seem in trouble whilst others appear to have turned around their poor form of last season. Two teams at either end of this spectrum face each other to open the weekend's football at Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville on Friday night.

The game within the game here is the battle between Jonathan Thurston and Scott Prince. Two of the game's great stars, captains and scheming halfbacks will no doubt bring their best in a bid to outplay each other and the winner of this skirmish will no doubt come away with the 2 points. Thurston too good for mine as the exhausted Titans take the field a little sluggish after their epic encounter in Canberra last week. Back to back away games take their toll.

My tip: North Queensland 20-16


Wests Tigers v South Sydney

Match of the Round for mine. Even with the Tigers devastating injury toll, their defensive performance against the Roosters last week signalled an intention to not go down without a fight. It continues here when they face the Bunnies on Friday night at the SFS. Robbie Farah will scheme, Benji Marshall will attack feverishly and the Wests' forwards will give their very best, but it simply won't be enough.

The