St. George-Illawarra won their third straight game, beating Canterbury 40-4 at home.
MATCH DETAILS
St. George-Illawarra opened their account after 14 minutes, with Euan Aitken scoring close to the line. Canterbury missed a chance to level up when William Hopoate knocked on trying to catch a Jack Cogger in the lead up to Corey Harawira-Naera scoring.
A Tim Lafai penalty goal in the 21st minute gave the Dragons an 8-0 lead.
A Ben Hunt strip off Ryce Martin lead to huge break and left hand shift to Lafai, extending the Dragons’ lead to 12.
A try in the corner for Mikaele Ravalawa from a beautiful Ben Hunt pass continued the Dragons’ dominance.
Ravalawa nearly had a second one early in the second half, but it was called back for a Matt Dufty forward pass.
Jordan Pereira scored his fifth try of the year in the 58th minute, with Ben Hunt scoring himself soon after, regathering his own kick after a Canterbury error. Another Bulldogs error gifted Zac Lomax the Dragons’ sixth try.
Canterbury got a consolation try in the final minutes through Reimis Smith. Hunt scored his second try on full time after a wonderful Pereira bat back.
FOUR POINTERS
HUNT STEPS UP AS DRAGONS DOMINATE
One of the most criticised players in the NRL, Hunt took the game on in the first half, setting up Aitken and Ravalawa’s tries and his strip off Martin leading to Lafai’s try. He helped the Dragons to an 18-0 halftime lead infront of an appreciative home crowd. He added two tries himself in the second half as the Bulldogs fell apart, and setting up Lomax’s try off a Canterbury error. A big Easter Saturday night game against Manly-Warringah at WIN Stadium awaits.
PEREIRA’S PERFECT START
Jordan Pereira continued his incredible start to 2019, with his fifth try in five games, only missing out against Newcastle last Sunday night.
CANTERBURY’S SPEED BUMP
After a promising fortnight (beating Wests and narrowly losing in Melbourne), Canterbury took a backward step today. The Bulldogs missed 36 tackles, conceded four penalties, made 11 errors and were dominated up forward. They’ll have to rebound quickly for their traditional Good Friday game against the in-form Souths.
SUBURBAN FOOTY RULES
Sunday afternoon was the perfect endorsement for suburban footy, with a huge red-and-white crowd at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium (or Kogarah Oval to the die-hards). Certainly a packed house at a suburban stadium is a much better sight than 10,000 at Homebush, with empty seats outnumbering fans. While night footy is important for ratings and advertising dollars, nothing beats a beautiful sunny afternoon infront of passionate fans. It was sweet revenge after last year’s 38-0 drubbing by the Bulldogs at Kogarah.
THE RESULT
ST GEORGE-ILLAWARRA 40
Tries: Ben Hunt (2), Euan Aitken, Timoteo Lafai, Mikaele Ravalawa, Jordan Pereira, Zac Lomax
Goals: Lafai 4/5, Lomax 2/2
Drop Goals: N/A
CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN 4
Tries: Reimis Smith
Goals: Rhyse Martin 0/1
Drop Goals: N/A
SQUADS
St George-Illawarra: 1. Matt Dufty 2. Jordan Pereira 3. Euan Aitken 4. Timoteo Lafai 5. Mikaele Ravalawa 6. Corey Norman 7. Ben Hunt 8. James Graham 9. Cameron McInnes (c) 10. Paul Vaughan 11. Tyson Frizell 12. Tariq Sims 13 Blake Lawrie. Interchange: 14. Jeremy Latimore 15. Zac Lomax 16. Jacob Host 17. Luciano Leilua
Canterbury-Bankstown: 1. Nick Meaney 2. Jayden Okunbor 3. Kerrod Holland 4. Will Hopoate 5. Reimis Smith 6. Jack Cogger 7. Lachlan Lewis 8. Aiden Tolman 9. Jeremy Marshall-King 10. Ofahiki Ogden 11. Josh Jackson 12. Corey Harawira-Naera 13. Rhyse Martin. Interchange: 14. Michael Lichaa 15. Sauaso Sue 16. Adam Elliot 17. Chris Smith
