There might be seven Origin players watching on from the New South Wales Blues camp, but the Cronulla Sharks and Canterbury Bulldogs refused to follow a script, rewarding a sell-out crowd at Southern Cross Group Stadium by putting on a brilliant display of rugby league, with the Sharks taking out a one-point victory.
The Sharks have made a habit of picking up wins from behind this season, and it was no exception as James Maloney, Wade Graham, Jack Bird and Andrew Fifita watched on, with the Sharks scoring seven points in the final quarter of an hour to take victory.
As expected, it was physical and low-scoring, with the Bulldogs making a Sharks side who dominated the majority of possession and field territory work for everything.
Chad Townsend’s kicking game was sensational right throughout the game, and despite forcing five dropouts in the first half, the Sharks had nothing to show for it at the halftime break apart from a penalty goal.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, managed to take the lead into the halftime break thanks to a Brenko Lee try which saw him run onto a pass, work his way around a defensive misread, before beating a few defenders to score.
With defence the name of the day, it was the only lapse from either side in the first half as Paul Gallen and Luke Lewis led the Sharks around the field to the forefront of the game, but not the scoreboard.
The veteran duo continued their run through the second half, along with Chad Townsend and Valentine Holmes being best on ground, but they still couldn’t find a way over the line as the Bulldogs defence held solid.
With James Graham out of the game thanks to a shoulder injury, it was a resilient performance from Des Hasler’s men, with Aiden Tolman playing the full 80 minutes on his way to 51 tackles and 148 metres.
Matt Frawley, Moses Mbye and Will Hopoate seemed to combine well for the Bulldogs when they did get opportunities, but like the Sharks they couldn’t find a way over, with every error seemingly swinging the momentum of the match on its head.
The real turning point came in the 67th minute, when a grubber kick was cleaned up by Paul Gallen, who somehow got back into the field of play. Valentine Holmes then broke a number of tackles before getting a quick play the ball in, which allowed Gerard Beale to make a break on the right-hand side, with the centre racing 70 metres to score.
With the game tied up following a conversion, attention turned to field goals, with the Sharks missing one through Townsend and the Bulldogs not quite getting in range for a shot.
A strong set just three minutes from time saw Cronulla get into position again, with Townsend capping off a stellar game, making no mistake from directly in front to send the game-winner over.
In the Shire then, it was Cronulla coming from behind again, picking up their eighth win from the last nine matches.
Full score
Cronulla Sharks 9
Canterbury Bulldogs 8
It comes after the NRL promised a crackdown on dissent towards the referees this week.
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