The NRL season is underway, and Round 2 sees the first full round on Australian soil, with teams looking to make statements about where they are heading this season.

It was a high-scoring opening round of the season, with two teams racking up 50 and another getting to 40, while another two games saw both teams score 20 or more points.

The faster pace of play in the modern NRL, and added fatigue of being early in the season, not to mention the heat that will hit the east coast of Australia this weekend, could lead to plenty of points being scored.

Each week, Zero Tackle will be making our predictions for five players we think will cross the tryline, as well as finding a value play of the week.

Here are the five for Round 2.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (The Dolphins)

 2025-03-13T09:00:00Z 
 
 
McDonald Jones
NEW   
26
FT
12
   DOL
   Crowd: 18,531

We expect the Hammer to find his way over the tryline at some point against the Knights. He has a knack of doing so, having scored in the club's last two matches at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The Knights' defence was solid enough last weekend, but was against the Wests Tigers outfit who really struggled to look coherent with the ball in hand.

They were shaky through the middle third at times last year as well, which is where Tabuai-Fidow, with his pace and agility, could well come to the fore.

Tabuai-Fidow has been a try-scoring machine since his arrival at the Dolphins, having notched up 30 tries in 36 games prior to this season kicking off. Not scoring in Round 1 as the Dolphins came up short against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, he is due to cross the stripe this time around.

Casey McLean (Penrith Panthers)

 2025-03-14T09:00:00Z 
 
 
CommBank Stadium
PEN   
32
FT
38
   SYD
   Crowd: 12,180

The Sydney Roosters had more than 50 points run up against them last weekend, and one of the big issues was Dominic Young's defence on the wing.

This week, the Roosters go up against the four-time defending premiers, and while they had the Las Vegas trip, it's hard to imagine this as anything other than a cricket score type scoreline.

Should Young and his edge fail to find immediate answers, winger Casey McLean could be in for an absolute field day, and and he could well be the lock of the week.

Christian Tuipulotu (St George Illawarra Dragons)

 2025-03-15T04:00:00Z 
 
 
WIN Stadium
STI   
24
FT
25
   SOU
   Crowd: 16,111

The Dragons head into their Saturday afternoon game in Wollongong against a severly understrength South Sydney Rabbitohs backline.

Fletcher Myers finds himself in the centres, and Bayleigh Bentley-Hape will debut on the other wing.

Christian Tuupulotu, playing outside the experienced centre Valentine Holmes, scored a hat-trick last weekend, and realistically will have to fumble and bumble his way through this Round 2 encounter to not find himself in a try-scoring position at some point here.

Jesse Ramien (Cronulla Sharks)

 2025-03-15T06:30:00Z 
 
 
QLD Country Bank
NQL   
12
FT
36
   CRO
   Crowd: 18,714

The North Queensland Cowboys' defence leaked like a tap last weekend, with the outside combinations struggling.

Jeremiah Nanai has paid for it with his spot, and while his defensive decision making needs work, he certainly wasn't the only problem in the horror loss to the Manly Sea Eagles.

Things are about to get worse too, with Jesse Ramien, who has quickly become one of the best centres in the game, to line up the same edge this weekend.

We expect the star Shark to have a field day.

Deine Mariner (Brisbane Broncos)

 2025-03-15T08:35:00Z 
 
 
GIO Stadium
CBR   
32
FT
22
   BRI
   Crowd: 18,884

The Broncos head to Canberra on Saturday evening, and the play for Deine Mariner to score is purely statistical.

The young outside back, who plays in his more favourable role of centres this year, has scored ten tries in his last eleven games interstate.

He, for whatever reason, just loves playing away from Brisbane.

Add to that some question marks around the Raiders' back five, and it's not hard to see why we reckon he is going to crash over at some point.

Value play of the week: Viliame Kikau (Canterbury Bulldogs)

 2025-03-16T07:15:00Z 
 
 
Belmore Sports Ground
CAN   
40
FT
24
   GLD
   Crowd: 17,892

Our value play of the week is Viliame Kikau. It's tough to know exactly how the Titans are going to run out, but their defence was a rabble to start last season.

They have missed the jump this year too with all of their rivals already having a game under their belt, and Viliame Kikau is due to cross the white line.

He scored last year against the Titans, and could be a strong contender to do so again here too with the Titans' susceptible edge defence.

You know what else isย Built Different?ย The PointsBet App!