The Canterbury Bulldogs have moved into the top four on the NRL ladder with a golden point win over the West Tigers at ANZ Stadium tonight.
CANTERBURY BULLDOGS 25
WEST TIGERS 24
Fighting back from 24-6 down, after 55 minutes, the Bulldogs would score 18 unanswered points to send the match to golden point extra time.
Moses Mbye would then become the hero of Belmore as he scored a field goal in the 4th minute of extra time to seal their third win of the season.
It would also be there 7th win out of their last 8 clashes with the Tigers.
In the early stages of the match though it was all the Tigers.
After three minutes they were on the board with a try to Kyle Lovett and had a 6-0 lead.
The Bulldogs would respond and equalise 12 minutes later through Curtis Rona.
Frank Pritchard, who set up the play, provided a great pass to Rona to level the score at 6-6.
That would be the score until half time with both teams creating chances but failing to put points on the board.
After half time, the Tigers attacked, and came out of the blocks.
In the space of 15 minutes they would score 3 tries and run out to a 24-6 lead.
Luke Brooks started it off with a run from one end to another, after a Bulldogs kick.
The half back would get a break past the Bulldogs defence and run away to give the Tigers a great start to the second half.
Two minutes later they would be over again as Brooks was involved in the play again.
He would pass to Tedesco who would score his first try for the match.
At the 55 minute mark, Tedesco would have a double, as the full back created all sort of problems for the Bulldogs.
Just when you thought the game was over, the Bulldogs responded, as they turned the ball over against the Tigers at the kick off.
Michael Lichaa would score his first try for the Dogs and the margin would be back to 12.
Nine minutes later, at the 67 minute mark, Rona would score his second try of the night to bring the margin back to six points.
When Josh Morris scored in the 75th minute, to level the scores, the Bulldogs were right back in the match.
With no score for the final four minutes the game went to extra time.
After both teams kicked poor field goals in the first two minutes, Mbye would step up, to slot the field goal to give the Bulldogs the win.
It was another game, like in 2014, that the Bulldogs would steal the win from the jaws of defeat.
The Tigers, who had plenty of chances to win the game, would rue their missed opportunities.
They had a couple of try scoring chances when they were 24-6 up and had a big chance for a field goal right before the try to Josh Morris.
They also had a couple of bad calls go against them.
A no try in the first half, for obstruction, could have gone their way but it was interpreted in the Bulldogs favour.
To single out the decisions though would undersell the game.
The Bulldogs played well and showed incredible fight to come back.
That is what won them the game and put them into the top 4.
They will now have a week off before facing the Bunnies on Good Friday.
The Tigers will face Parramatta next round.
The Wests Tigers will be looking to overturn a poor record against the Canterbury Bulldogs and move into the top four with a win at ANZ Stadium. Join The Roar for live coverage of the match from 7:35pm (AEDT).
The Bulldogs have won six of the last seven matches between these two, with the Tigers winning for the first time in four years last year.
That victory, which was a 46-18 win, was done against a Bulldogs team missing a host of players through injury.
Later in the year, when their best players came back to the team, they gained revenge with a 30-10 win in Round 24.
In the last twelve matches since 2008, the Bulldogs have won eight, with the Tigers winning four.
If you take away the first 52 minutes of the match against Penrith in Round 1 – when they were 24-0 down – the Bulldogs have been one of the top teams in the competition so far. They almost stole the win against the Panthers, scoring 18 unanswered points, before beating both Manly and Parramatta in Rounds 2 and 3.
After beating Gold Coast and St George, the Tigers were brought back to Earth by premiership favourites South Sydney last Sunday by 14 points. They had their chances but struggled to capitalise on them.
If the young team, led by new coach Jason Taylor, are to win tonight they will have to do it without two of their stars. Pat Richards and Aaron Woods are out with suspension and injury respectively. They are replaced by Kyle Lovett and debutant Delouise Hoeter.
As for the Bulldogs, they have named an unchanged line-up for the match, with only Josh Reynolds and Pat O’Hanlon unavailable, with long-term injuries.
Prediction
With one of the largest forward packs in the competition, the Bulldogs will try to dominate the Tigers. If they can, then they will control the contest and eventually tire the opposition into mistakes.
Bulldogs by 10.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
There is something worse.. you take that existing set of issues then add Fittler near a microphone and your team playing the Roosters (or Panthers). Then you also remove Sterling. Though personally I don't mind Lewis, he's kind of like crackers (in that crackers alone are kind of rubbish, but good cheese and they add something) -- you put him with a good team and he's actually fairly good, I recall a game where he was in the booth with Gould and Warren last year actually offering some insight.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Is there anything worse in life than having to wait until 9.45pm on a Friday night to watch your team play and then have to listen to Hadley and Lewis commentate the game? Lewis as a player was brilliant, creative innovative and mesmerising. Everything he's not as a commentator.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Fans will be banned from commenting next...
hatamahata
Guest
Ray Hadley, all class, snort snort
Doggies
Guest
Game was great, commentating was awful.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Completely understandable. Kasiano was brilliant tonight too, don't honestly see how anyone who enjoys the sport could want less players like him and more of the uncreative 5 hit ups no offloads kick on the fifth and pray for penalties.
steveng
Roar Rookie
That first try to Lovett was not a try, it was a blatant forward pass and should have not been given. The refereeing in the Wests/Tigers vs Bulldogs was pretty good but for the life of me I cannot understand how 4 on field refs and 2 video refs cannot call a blatant forward pass that lead to a try, and the try was given with no questions asked or the captain of the Bulldogs was not allowed to question it, why? This try could have made this game a very controversial one and could of had an adverse result to the Bulldogs if they wouldn't of won on golden points. The referees in the NRL are kidding themselves by the new rule that no coach, no player or official can say a word about them or even mention their actions in a game after the blatant and fundamental mistakes of forward passes, head high tackles, letting players walk off the mark, controversial ties that are not tries etc etc they do this continually round by round and especially in the first 2 games of round 4. God help us if the season continues like this and nothing is done about the standard of the refereeing in the NRL because there will be allot of irate fans and allot of fans that will walk away from the game.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Understandable though. Last minute changes. Jackson was pretty sharp in attack in the second half. There's not too many NSW back rowers looking better than him at the moment. Bulldogs size just wore the young tigers down. Brave effort from them.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
Perrett is highly underrated. I wish he was playing for Glebe.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Bulldogs right side with Jackson in the centres and Thompson playing his first game of first grade for a while was a real mess, especially when Perrett went off. That misdirect with the pass to Hodkinson then he passes in the other direction for Mbye to try the drop goal is a smart movement, got used last year with Hodkinson and Reynolds too -- I think against the chooks. Not sure if the set was too long, I do know that the first tackle was called zero.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Someone during the week said that the game needs to get rid of players like Kasiano...not sure why, it's great to watch big men with ball skills...he was outstanding tonight.
The Barry
Roar Guru
It was 7 tackles because Brooks' FG attempt hit a tigers player who was offside. when Perrett was tackled it was the zero tackle...
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
It was a seven tackle set because brooks' kick went into a teammate for accidental offside.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
Thanks for the effort. Well done guvna.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
Triple M are reporting that the final set of the match, which saw the field goal, was 7 tackles. I'm sure that will be talked about for days if that is found to be true. That is all from me in the coverage tonight. Until next time it is bye for now.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
Full report to be done in a second. That was a great match.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
STATS - POSSESSION - Tigers 50% Bulldogs 50% TOTAL SETS Tigers 42 Bulldogs 39 COMPLETE SETS Tigers 34 Bulldogs 31 COMPLETION RATE Tigers 81% Bulldogs 79% ATTACK ALL RUNS - Tigers 191 Bulldogs 176 ALL RUN METRES - Tigers 1813 Bulldogs 1725 LINE BREAKS - Tigers 2 Bulldogs 6 OFFLOADS - Tigers 7 Bulldogs 10 DEFENCE KICK METRES - Tigers 480 Bulldogs 288 40/20 - 0 each TACKLES - Tigers 351 Bulldogs 377 MISSED TACKLES - Tigers 26 Bulldogs 18 GOAL LINE DROPOUTS - 0 each TRY SAVES - 0 each DISCIPLINE PENALTIES CONCEDED - Tigers 9 Bulldogs 8 ERRORS - Tigers 7 Bulldogs 9 SEND OFFS - 0 each SIN BINS - 0 each
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
Trent Hodkinson wins man of the match. The Bulldogs become the first NRL club to win 100 matches at ANZ Stadium.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
GP - 83:35 BULLDOGS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Moses Mbye kicks a wicked field goal and the Bulldogs win 25-24. Hodkinson doesn't have enough space and passes to Mbye. He kicks and it just goes over. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't extremely high, but it got the job done. WHAT A MATCH.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
GP - 82:28 Brooks tries a field goal but doesn't get any height either. It hits a Bulldogs player, and a Tigers player, but the Bulldogs get the ball back. They have the ball.