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.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Well, throwing the ball around or standing deep is a guarantee of lost possession and/or territory - unless you are really good at it. Whereas in days gone by the more leisurely line speed allowed a bit more latitude. So this is the dilemma, faster and fitter players will absolutely stifle any attacking play if they are too close, whilst OTH fast play the balls and 10-12 metres to the line make the endless hit-ups virtually inevitable.
catcat
Roar Rookie
At one point I was worried the Dogs would score and send the game into extra time...
JN
Guest
How was it a bad game? I agree, both teams were not up to scratch and made stupid errors, but the game, especially the second half, was great due to the tension and excitement created through the amount of attacking opportunities the Bulldogs had, and the brilliant defence of the Roosters. It saddens me that people cannot enjoy a gritty, close, scrappy game which very much was reminiscent of low-scoring, thrilling games from decades ago; rather many people just want tries in their games. This was a great game to watch, and that is my opinion.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Grow up, Peter. Jacob volunteered his time to give live updates. He has no obligation to meet some arbitrary standard you set (and most updates were much more frequent than that anyway).
mushi
Guest
Jacob don’t listen to Phelps, good job on what was a terrible game to have to cover. There was no time at which you took “12 minutes” other than half time and pregame (you averaged ~4 minutes per update and you’re longest gap during paly was 9 minutes) and so he’s just making stuff up. So I’d ignore his unhelpful and inaccurate criticism if I were you.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
I have watched now and again over the years ,some really ugly games of rugby league, but last night's effort just about took the cake. It was utterly awful. Don't blame the refs.One team seems to stuff up every attacking move, the other just seem to want to coast along ,and rush home to get stuck into a decent meal.
Peter Phelps
Guest
For someone who could not watch the action and relied on this commentary to follow the game, it was dreadful. 12 minutes between updates is not acceptable. In fact it is worth than useless as much time is wasted hitting the refresh button or logging in again in thinking your screen had frozen. Trying to follow the game was impossible. Just write a final summary in future and be done with it. Very disappointed.
kangajets
Guest
The skills of the game have been coached out of players by robotic team tactics They might be over simplifying things , but it’s 20 years since we had expansive deep backline football and traditional off loading forwards .
Gus Paella
Guest
Pretty weak response that.
Nat
Roar Guru
Lichaa's holding the ball too long before passing. Takes time away from the receiver both forwards and halves. Still Foran not involved as much as he should be for the dominant half and price tag.
Jacob Cocciolone
Roar Pro
The Sydney Roosters have overcome the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium this evening. In a game that was low scoring with defence coming to the fore, the Roosters can take a lot away from this game, building momentum for the weeks ahead. The final score of 6-0 may not show promise to fans of an entertaining football game, but this game had a different feel, a grind to it. The Bulldogs need to go back to the drawing board and look more to the likes of Foran and Lichaa for direction. Lichaa should have taken the line on a lot more in order to provide the go forward for his squad. They certainly lacked a spark and hopefully Dean Pay can stir something in his troops as they face a monumental task next week against Penrith at the foot of the mountains. The Roosters will need to be much better in attack if they are to flex their premiership credentials against early premiership favourites St George Illawarra next week. Cooper Cronk and Luke Keary were quiet, they will need to be on their best day with the red hot form of Gareth Widdop and Ben Hunt. Player of the game would have to go to Latrell Mitchell, despite a few errors in the second half, he claimed the only points of the game and looked threatening throughout the entire first half. Both sides can take a lot from this game, you would think Dean Pay and his Bulldogs more than that of Trent Robinson’s Roosters. The weeks to come are testing times. Final Score: Roosters 6 vs Bulldogs 0 Thank you to everyone for tuning in and as always I appreciate your comments!
Joe
Roar Rookie
Just an addition on Mybe and Lichaa, they're not following the forwards who were tremendous tonight. Mybe in particular needs to take lessons from the likes of Slater, Dufty and be right next to those forwards who are most likely to break the line and offload. So many half breaks by the Dogs tonight by both forwards and backs but no support so play got shut down.
Emcie
Roar Guru
over 50 takles in their oppositions 20 and not a point to their name makes it hard to praise them
Joe
Roar Rookie
Low scoring affair but both teams defensive efforts need to be applauded. But for that piece of brilliance by Mitchell neither side looked like breaking the line. The Dogs attack in particular needs a lot of work considering the possesion and territory they had. The forwards set a great platform but there is just no flair or variety in attack. I thought Foran and Mybe should have been the ones to spark the attack but they both looked pedestrian. It could be that trip up North last week might have taken something off them with the short turnaround into a Thursday night game. They were just flat in attack. The Roosters weren't much good either withe their attack but they had the excuse of hardly reaching the Dogs 20m line.
bungeye
Roar Rookie
I'm a casual observer of rugby, but why is it so boring compared to 10 years ago? People are blaming the referees but not the players? There's no expansive play or imagative payers with smarts or the skillset. I've lost count on how many knock ons there are. Coaches are coaching for the teams strength and they STILL cannot retain the ball.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Very true Danno1, thought Lichaa was saying mid-week he'd run the ball up the middle because thats exactly what the Warriors and Rabbits did with great success against the Roosters but instead its just passing to forwards for the one out hits. Whoever came up with the game plan for this game made a big mistake.
Danno1
Guest
Well that was hard work. Great effort from both teams, and great defence by the roosters.....but boy us doggies need way more direction in attack. We didn't ask many questions with the ball that's for sure. Disappointed we didn't attack the ruck in the middle, no inside passes, no drift wide then back to Mbye up the middle, no angled running back behind the play the ball, the Roosters were carved up last week there and we didn't even have a crack....and no x-factor. Back to the drawing board.
Dodgy dragons
Guest
That was the worst game of football I’ve seen in a long time. Bulldogs attacking plan - give it to a forward to barge over - absolutely s*#%house!!! Woods and klemmer over 200m each but 15 sec play the balls. The stats look great but the momentum zero. Makes the money spent on Hunt at the dragons look pretty good now.
Malo
Guest
How much is Foran getting paid. Too much
jimmmy
Guest
Nrl roar