The 2009 NRL Under-20s season was the second season of the

NRL Under-20s The NRL Under-20s (known commercially as the Holden Cup due to sponsorship from Holden) was the top league of professional rugby league for players aged 20 years or younger in Australasia. Contested by sixteen teams, the Under-20s competition co ...

competition. The Competition, known as the Toyota Cup for sponsorship purposes, is solely for under-20 players. The draw and structure of the competition mirrors that of its first grade counterpart, the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

Season summary

Schedule

Ladder

Ladder progression

Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.

Finals series

The

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

finals series adopts the

McIntyre final eight system The McIntyre Final Eight System was devised by Ken McIntyre in addition to the McIntyre Four, Five and Six systems. It is a playoff system of the top 8 finishers in a competition to determine which two teams will play in the grand final. The tea ...

just like its first grade counterpart, the

Grand Final

English-born Melbourne young gun

Gareth Widdop Gareth Widdop (born 12 March 1989) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Castleford Tigers in the Betfred Super League, and England and Great Britain at international level. Widdop previously played the ...

clinched the Toyota Cup grand final for the Storm with a 74th minute try and pressure conversion, his side downing the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

24-22 on Sunday. Widdop finger-nailed a late grubber - his second try of the match - to draw his side level at 22-22 before calmly potting the conversion and delivering the second version of the national under-20s competition to Melbourne. The Storm scored four of their five tries in the first half to lead 18-10 at the break before a burst of two four-pointers in three minutes from the Tigers took them to a 22-18 lead after 56 minutes. The Tigers had looked to be coming home with a wet sail before Widdop, who missed three first-half conversions, made the difference in a match where the lead changed five times. The match became a virtual showdown between two gun fullbacks as

tryscoring machine

Jake Mullaney Jake Mullaney (born 28 May 1990) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who has played in the 2000s and 2020s. He played for English club Bradford Bulls, as a or . He has been described as, "slightly built," and a, "prolific go ...

took his season tally to 29 tries from 27 games in 2009 with a double of his own. The speedy Tigers fullback also scored a try on either side of halftime and set up five-eighth

Robert Lui Robert Lui (born 23 February 1990) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Townsville Blackhawks in the Queensland Cup. He has previously played for the Wests Tigers and the North Queensland Cowboys in ...

's four-pointer for the Tigers' second-half lead. Melbourne, who finished third in the regular season, had held the ascendancy before that, and led 18-10 at the break with, ironically, Widdop's goal-kicking letting his side down. The Storm had also been denied three times in the first half, twice with players held up, but scored tries through winger

Matt Duffie Matthew David Duffie (born 16 August 1990) is a New Zealand professional rugby footballer who plays rugby union for the Blues in Super Rugby. He previously played rugby league with the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League and was a ...

, lock Billy Rogers,

and centre

Justin O'Neill Justin O'Neill (born 4 April 1991) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL and Australia at international level. He represented the NRL All Stars ...

.
Melbourne Storm 24 (

, Billy Rogers,

tries;

2/5 goals) Wests Tigers 22 (

2, Rhys Curran,

tries;

3/4 goals) Half-Time: Melbourne 18-10 Jack Gibson Medal:

Luke Kelly Luke Kelly (17 November 1940 – 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become i ...

Club and Player Statistics

Leading try scorers

Leading point scorers

Leading goal scorers

Leading field goal scorers

Biggest Wins

Winning Streaks

* QF = Qualifying Finals * GF = Grand Final

Losing Streaks

Awards

Toyota Cup Player of the Year

The winner of the award is decided by the most votes during the year as decided by the referee of each game on a 3-2-1 basis for each game played throughout the regular season. :''Winner:'' ::

Beau Henry Beau Henry (born 17 January 1990) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays for the Wentworthville Magpies in the Ron Massey Cup. He formerly played for the Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby Lea ...

St George Illawarra The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...

Toyota Cup team Of The Year

The Toyota Cup team of the Year is voted on by the 16 Toyota Cup coaches, with the players with the highest votes in each position selected.

References

External links

NRL.com - Official site of the NYC
National Youth Competition {{NRL 2009 NRL Under-20s season