Bulldogs Hold Off the Sharks

The Canterbury Bulldogs have held off a late charge from the Cronulla Sharks to win their round 11 NRL clash 32-24 this afternoon at Telstra Stadium.

Leading 26-6 heading into the final 15 minutes the Bulldogs looked to have wrapped up their fifth win in a row, but some ill discipline from the home side led to second rower Sonny Bill Williams and five eighth Daniel Holdsworth being sin binned which left the door ajar for a storming finish from the Sharks.

Cronulla scored four tries in the space of eight minutes to draw within two points of Canterbury, but in the end the poor goal kicking of Luke Covell would come back to haunt them as the lanky winger missed his last three attempts to stall the courageous comeback.

Having won their last four games on the trot the Sharks came out all guns blazing in the opening 10 minutes and were extremely unlucky not to register first points when a grubber kick from half back Brett Kimmorley somehow evaded his winger Darren Albert when the try line was at his mercy.

Cronulla went close again in the sixth minute when Covell was held up over the line and they had another promising movement break down after quarter of an hour of play when centre Beau Scott dropped the ball after Covell had made inroads down the left hand sideline.

That error became very costly for the Sharks as the Bulldogs opened the scoring from the ensuing set of six through winger Matt Utai after the home side had spun the ball quickly to the left to find the bustling New Zealander all alone on the left hand flank.

Winger Hazem El Masri curling conversion attempt just missed to the left to leave Canterbury ahead 4-0 after 16 minutes.

The Bulldogs made it two tries in three minutes when Holdsworth stepped through some feeble Sharks defence and then raced the required 20 metres for the simplest of tries.

El Masri made no mistake with the simple conversion to make the lead 10 points and then a couple of minutes later he extended it to 12 points with a penalty goal after Kimmorley had been penalised for a dangerous tackle.

Cronulla centre Phil Bailey got his side back into the contest in the 30th minute when he caught the Canterbury markers napping close to the try line by feigning a pass and then diving over from dummy half.

Covell knocked over the easy attempt to narrow the gap to a converted try, but another penalty goal to El Masri shortly before half time pushed the Dogs lead out to eight points going into the main break.

With the Sharks struggling to capitalise on their opportunities Canterbury had no such problems early in the second half with El Masri scoring off a well judged Brett Sherwin kick and then soon after Utai was in for his second of the afternoon to give the home side a commanding 24-6 lead.

A third penalty goal to El Masri looked to have sealed the two competition points for the Bulldogs, but a crazy seven minute period midway through the second half resulted in Williams and Holdsworth being sin binned for Canterbury, while Bailey joined them for 10 minutes for Cronulla.

With the numbers advantage the Sharks looked to spread it early and the dividends were spectacular.

Covell was the first man to go in, scoring in the left hand corner and then converting his own try to make it 26-12 with 16 minutes to play.

Unconverted tries to replacement forward Matt Hilder and lock Greg Bird in the 68th and 70th minute reduced the margin to six points to set up a grandstand finish over the final eight minutes of the game.

With Cronulla full of running it looked inevitable that they would score again and when Kimmorley put in a perfectly weighted chip kick for full back David Simmons the Sharks had closed the gap to two points with a kick to come.

Covell had already missed his last two shots at goal and with the pressure well and truly on him he faltered again pushing his conversion attempt to the right of the posts.

That would be the visitors last chance as the Bulldogs shut down the contest and to rub salt into Cronulla’s wounds they scored again through centre Willie Tonga to push the final score line out to 32-24.

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