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The Canterbury Bulldogs will be out to turn around a sluggish start and get back into the winner’s circle when they face the Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night. Join myself and The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 7:50pm AEST.
The Bulldogs head into this game coming off an impressive win against the Cowboys in North Queensland last week, playing unstructured football in order to get the result they needed against quality opposition.
We should see plenty more this week with Moses Mbye and Will Hopoate looking to continue their strong starts to 2018. Josh Morris will play his 250th game against a Roosters side coming off a heavy defeat to South Sydney last week.
The Roosters will look to bounce back after a sluggish second half performance. Trent Robinson will look to change the direction of their play in order to give the Roosters attack more direction, giving James Tedesco, in particular, more room to manoeuvre.
The Roosters forwards struggled last week, being beaten several times up the middle by the speed of Souths hooker Damien Cook. Michael Lichaa may not possess the same speed as Cook, however, if the opportunity is there to take the line on, you will see him with either Hopoate or Mbye in his back pocket.
Expect to see a big game from Jake Friend on the back of his disappointing performance last week. Ryan Matterson was also strong for the Roosters last week and could prove the key difference on the edge for the Roosters.
Prediction
The Bulldogs can cause another upset here on the back of their dominant performance last week, leaving the Roosters boasting a star-studded line-up, scratching their heads in a critical period some one month out from Origin. The Bulldogs will take this one by 2.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match starting from 7:50pm AEST.