The engine room is the heart and soul of every rugby league team, and no team has ever won a competition with a poor forward pack.

It's really quite as simple as that.

SEE ALSO: Every NRL club's spine ranked for 2026

The spine might get all the credit, and the outside backs provide all the flash, but they might as well all stay in the dressing room.

RELATED: Every NRL club's outside backs ranked for 2026

For the purposes of this exercise, and given hookers were included in the spine, we will be looking at the prop, lock and second-row positions to determine which NRL side has the best forward pack.

Here are the rankings for the 2026 campaign.

5. Penrith Panthers

Likely first-choice: Moses Leota, Lindsay Smith, Isaah Yeo, Liam Martin, Scott Sorensen

The Panthers come into the new campaign balanced, stable, and looking to build on the momentum they created at the back-end of 2025.

You'd have to argue they are a good chance of doing so too with one of the game's better forward packs.

Moses Leota and Lindsay Smith both bring their own skillset to the middle, and are backed up well by Liam Henry.

Isaah Yeo, at club level, is one of the game's best locks and fits into Penrith's system beautifully.

Liam Martin will miss the start of the season with an injury, but his return will add plenty of grit to the outfit, while Scott Sorensen will go down as one of the club's better signings when he moves to the Bears at the end of the campaign.

All of this is backed up by Isaiah Papali'i, who had a tremendous 2025 campaign.

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