- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Bulldogs are on track to break their six-game losing streak after taking an 18-10 halftime lead over the Raiders in their NRL clash at Canberra Stadium on Monday night.
Canterbury centre Josh Morris crossed for the first of their three first half tries, opening the scoring for the visitors in the fifth minute.
Ten minutes later, rising star Ben Barba lived up to his growing hype when the pivot cut through Canberra’s Daniel Vidot and the returning Josh Dugan in a 60m effort to score and help the Bulldogs take a 12-0 lead.
And the Raiders were shellshocked when Dogs fullback Luke Patten crossed in the 18th minute.
But the Raiders quickly regained their composure.
First winger Joel Monaghan latched onto a clever pass from five-eighth Terry Campese to score in the 24th minute.
Then centre Joel Thompson crashed over just before halftime to get the home side back into the match.
Raiders fullback Dugan made a return from a knee injury that had sidelined him for the past two matches in a last ditch effort to impress NSW selectors.
But he left his run too late with the youngster missing out on Blues selection for July 7’s Origin III.
“There’s a lot of spirit in the side, the boys are putting their heads down and working really hard,” Moore said of the gutsy win.
“The culmination of that I think is a strong performance tonight.”
Moore was particularly chuffed with young pivot Barba’s showing, after dropping him to reserve grade for a month to improve his game.
“He’s still a young kid, he’s just turned 21, and I think what we’ve done over the last month or so has helped his footy,” he said.
“Tonight they got the win. They rattled him plenty, he handled it well, he’s got some things to improve on but he did a great job.”
Canberra coach David Furner said his side’s effort just wasn’t good enough.
“Our first half was poor, we talked it up, we didn’t deliver, we got well beaten on the ground,” he said.
“Even in the second half, it comes down to desire, attitude and that was disappointing.”
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.