Robbie Farah shouldn't have played but Wests Tigers fans were thanking their lucky stars he did after the in-form hooker dribbled over an ugly last minute field goal to hand his side a thrilling 29-28 NRL win over Cronulla.

Plagued by a painful hip pointer injury which prevented him from taking part in even one training run this week, Farah begged the Tigers coaching staff to let him play, with his pleas finally answered on Friday morning.

Then with the aid of a couple of pain-killing injections - which were fast running out of puff as fulltime drew near - Farah teased and tormented the Sharks to lead the Tigers to a win which maintained their spot in the top eight.

"I was no chance during the week - even without pain-killers I couldn't do anything," Farah said.

"I was pretty desperate ... I knew a loss tonight would have ended our season and I didn't want to be watching from the sidelines.

"I just had to do anything I could to get on the field."

Down 18-4 at the break, the Tigers looked headed for their fifth loss in six matches before Farah stepped in to spark a four-try burst in the space of 13 minutes and give his side a 28-18 lead on the hour.

It was instigated by a runaway 70m effort from Benji Marshall before powerful winger Taniela Tuiaki pounced when the Sharks failed to clean up a Farah grubber.

Farah then jumped out of dummy half to set up Brett Hodgson before Chris Lawrence completed the rout with his 15th try of the season.

The Sharks fought back with two late tries before Farah again stepped in with 55 seconds remaining to ensure there wouldn't be another game added to the recent spate of golden point matches.

"I don't think I had another ten minutes in me," Farah said of avoiding extra time.

"It (the hip injury) just seemed to gradually get worse and worse - if it went to extra time I was in a bit of trouble."

Tigers coach Tim Sheens praised Farah's remarkable courage, the veteran mentor knowing just how significant the last gasp win could end up being come the end of the regular season.

"A wobbly field goal can turn a game for you, turn a season for you," he said.

"When you get down to this end of the season, you've just got to play.

"He mightn't get another chance - we lose that tonight, we might get another chance, we might not."

The win saw the Tigers leapfrog Brisbane into seventh spot on 24 points, Sheens believing his side needed to win at least one more game to confirm a finals berth.

For the Sharks, their season is now over, the loss their ninth by four points or less.

After giving up their handy halftime lead, the Sharks still had one last chance to keep their season alive when Luke Covell bagged his second of the night nine minutes from fulltime, but his conversion attempt sailed wide to leave the scores tied at 28-all.

"We lost that game tonight - we had a lead with which we should have won," Sharks coach Ricky Stuart said.

"A really poor 15 or so minutes in that second half where they got that roll on and scored three tries ... it put us under the pump.

"I wouldn't count that as the one that got away - we lost it."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP