The Wests Tigers have come away with an important two points at CommBank Stadium, fighting hard to triumph over the Bulldogs in a 22-16 thriller.
The Tigers started out on the defensive, working hard to turn away a determined Canterbury outfit before an error from the Bulldogs gave them an opportunity to pounce early.
They went on to have a strong first half, taking a 16-6 upper hand into the sheds.
The Bulldogs struck early in the second, before the orange, white, and black responded with a try of their own and went on to defend their way to a 22-16 triumph at home.
Key Stats:
Jahream Bula: Picked up where he left off prior to his Round 8 injury, scoring his sixth try in eight games this season.
Jeral Skelton: Crossed for a double, tallying six tries in five games at CommBank Stadium. Ran for 223 metres, nine tackle breaks and two offloads.
Terrell May: Had a strong 65 minutes in the front row, recording 167 run metres with five tackle breaks and four offloads.
Kicking: Holding the lesser share of possession, the Tigers controlled the contest off the boot with Jock Madden kicking for 526 metres and Jarome Luai for 337.
Completion Rate: The home side remained disciplined with ball in hand, completing 35 of their 39 sets for an 89% completion rate.
The Moments:
9th minute: An error from Bronson Xerri handed the Tigers valuable territory, which they capitalised on top open the scoring with a left-edge shift seeing Jeral Skelton dive over in the corner. Jock Madden nailed the sideline conversion for a 6-0 lead.
9th minute: Heamasi Makasini leaves the field for an HIA, replaced by Starford To’a.
16th minute: A penalty to the Tigers landed them back in the redzone, with Tino Tavana fielding a cross-field kick from Madden for his team’s second try, extending their lead to 10.
24th minute: Makasini passes his HIA, returning to the field.
28th minute: The Tigers strike again, with a short ball from Jarome Luai to Kai Pearce-Paul drawing in defenders, allowing the Englishman to offload for Jahream Bula to score in his first match returning from injury. Madden added the extras to make it 16-0.
36th minute: The Bulldogs score before half-time as Sitili Tupouniua offloads to Jacob Kiraz, who dives over.
40th minute: Canterbury captain Stephen Crichton looked certain to score as he dived over the tryline, but an amazing effort from Bula saw the fullback wedge his knee underneath the ball and wrap Crichton up.
47th minute: The Bulldogs grab another as Tupouniua finds Tuala to cross in the corner, cutting the Tigers lead to six.
47th minute: Sione Fainu is forced from the field for an HIA. He was later ruled out of the contest.
55th minute: The Tigers extend their lead, with a grubber into the in-goal from Luai bouncing up for Skelton to get his second of the evening. Madden’s conversion was unsuccessful; the Tigers lead 20-10.
60th minute: A penalty to the Tigers in front of the sticks allowed them to extend their lead to 22-10.
69th minute: Lachlan Galvin reaches out from dummy half to score. Crichton slots the conversion, leaving the Tigers with a 22-16 lead.
79th minute: The Tigers produced an urgent phase of defence on their try line, turning away multiple sets. To’a produced a game-saving one-on-one tackle on Xerri, before Luai and Alex Seyfarth forced the ball from a charging Sitili Tupouniua to seal a hard-fought victory.
What they said:
NRL Head Coach, Benji Marshall
“Pleased to get the result, obviously a big game."
“We've missed the start of a lot of games this season, and to get away to a good start was really positive for us."
“To get that result off the back of our resilience and our defence was pleasing.”
Talking about last week’s bye:
“We've got a chance to reset, refocus our attention onto what we were doing well to start the season, and then put that into practice today.”
