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Matt Burton didn’t quite bash down the State of Origin selection door but he definitely gave his chances a major boost by orchestrating Canterbury’s second-half surge to sink an insipid St George Illawarra side.
With the Dragons’ edge defence crumbling after Jack Bird went off with an ankle injury late in the first half, the Dogs ran in seven unanswered tries to register a resounding 44-12 victory on Thursday night at Accor Stadium.
Bird appeared to have suffered a broken leg as he writhed in agony after tackling Bronson Xerri but club medicos are hopeful he may have only suffered a lesser syndesmosis injury in the only bright spot for the beaten visitors.
Burton scored a try in each half and steered Canterbury towards the weak link in the opposition defensive line after Bird limped off but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to seal his selection ahead of Jarome Luai and Cody Walker in the race to be the NSW five-eighth alongside Nicho Hynes for Origin I on June 5 at the same venue.
“He’s going a lot better but the sky’s the limit for him,” Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo said. “If he puts it all together, there’s not going to be a debate about whether he’s in that team. He’s put himself in the frame for that team and if he gets an opportunity he will grab it with both hands.”
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after his team’s capitulation.
“The last time I was in this room I’d won a comp, how things have changed,” Dragons coach Shane Flanagan grimaced when he turned up to the post-match media conference in the bowels of Accor Stadium before comically slumping to put his head on the table.
“It was so bad you’ve got to try to laugh about it. Two halves, so different. We were really good in the first half. Some of the numbers out of the game, you haven’t seen too often – we only had eight sets (in the second half) and they had 26. Possession killed us. And then when we finally did get possession we turned it over or gave away penalties. We were our own worst enemy.”
After narrow defeats to a depleted Penrith side and Canberra in Magic Round, Ciraldo shook up his side with halfback Drew Hutchison paying the price with Toby Sexton called up.
“He’s got all the tools” Knights Immortal Andrew Johns said on Nine commentary in stating his belief that the former Titans playmaker could be a long-term NRL halfback.
The Sexton-Burton combination seemed to work although the Dogs were a hair off the pace in the opening 40 minutes.
St George Illawarra struck first in the 13th minute via Moses Suli when a Ben Hunt cut-out pass fooled Stephen Crichton.
“He goes far enough into the line to attract defenders,” Johns gushed, “gives his outside men some time. That was perfect halfback play.”
Burton squared the ledger when he won the race to a Sexton grubber before Dragons hooker Jacob Liddle burrowed over from close range for a 12-6 half-time lead.
Jaeman Salmon fends off Tom Eisenhuth. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Bird’s injury looked nasty but while his prognosis turned out to not be as dire as first feared with the club hopeful he may only miss six weeks for what initally appeared to be season-ending damage.
Even though he managed to crawl over the sideline before getting treatment, play was held up for several minutes a short time later as he received attention, eventually getting the green whistle to ease his pain as the medicab took him into the dressing room.
His absence in the defensive line was a huge problem for the Dragons given they had selected four forwards on the bench, forcing Shane Flanagan to shift Matt Eisenhuth to left centre.
The Bulldogs ran past Eisenhuth and an equally inept Luciano Leilua for Jaeman Salmon to make it 12-12 early in the second half and were unlucky to concede a penalty which piggybacked Canterbury downfield a short time later when Hunt was ruled to have made a second effort to drag Xerri over the sideline.
“I can’t believe that’s a penalty. That’s a dud call,” Johns fumed.
Canterbury cashed in on the next set when winger Jacob Kiraz sped past Eisenhuth and Leilua’s arm grabs to put Salmon over again.
Salmon spent a couple of days in hospital last week on an IV drip due to an illness and missed Magic Round even though Ciraldo said he still wanted to play.
Nobody can accuse that Dog of being weak-gutted. Surely.
Kiraz crossed for a four-pointer of his own midway just before the hour mark, running through that same right-side channel, to give the Dogs a 24-12 lead and the tiring Dragons were on the ropes.
Second-rower Jacob Preston completed the onslaught down the western edge of the ground as Leilua again snatched at thin air and the contest was over.
When Zac Lomax was marched for a professional foul in a Xerri near-miss for a try, the floodgates opened wider still with Burton and Kiraz grabbing their second and Crichton also cashing in.
“I think we just played with some freedom once we got going in the second half,” Ciraldo said.
“Every win is huge for us. We’ve had our opportunities to win games at the end and we haven’t taken them. Tonight to come here and played the way we did was really pleasing.”
There were a lot of eyebrows raised when Canterbury seemingly bought every utility player on the open market in the off-season.
St George Illawarra could have done with a versatile bench option on Thursday night – a forward who could fill in out wide.
But with Flanagan going into the game with four forwards, his best of a bad bunch option was to switch Eisenhuth to left centre when Bird was hobbled.
With Leilua playing his first game for more than a month due to a calf injury and looking well short of a gallop and Kyle Flanagan shuffling wider to defend next to Mikaele Ravalawa, it was a recipe for disaster with Canterbury running in six of their seven four-pointers in the second stanza through the tackle-shy quartet.
The Dragons also lost forward Hame Sele early in the contest to a shoulder injury so they were clearly under fatigue as the match wore on with only two subs to rotate onto the pitch but some of the defence was downright embarrassing.
When coach Flanagan plonks himself down at the selection table to prepare for next week’s trip to Penrith, the first order of business should be working out a way to cover all options with his interchange.
“Without a doubt, we’ll be looking at that for sure,” he said when asked if he would be making changes to his line-up. “If you keep getting these results and you keep picking the same side, they’ll find a new coach.”