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.

13. The Dolphins

Likely first-choice: Daniel Saifiti, Tom Flegler, Max Plath, Kulikefu Finefeuiaki, Tom Gilbert

The Dolphins are a side nearly impossible to place heading into 2026.

On one foot, it's difficult to know what their 17 is going to look like from week to week. On the other foot, they had so many injuries last year, and how those players return is anyone's guess.

Tom Gilbert hasn't played a game in more than 18 months, Tom Flegler is closer to two years, Max Plath had an ACL injury at the end of 2025 and Daniel Saifiti has been on again-off again with his own injuries.

At full strength and ful potential, the Dolphins could run out an elite forward pack with plenty of depth to boot.

Right now though, with the evidence we have - admittedly not much - it's tough to rank them any higher than the bottom third of the pile.

Expect improvement in 2026.

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