CANTERBURY BULLDOGS 28 PENRITH PANTHERS 4
CALLUM WALKER, Accor Stadium, Thursday

THE result may have been a foregone conclusion before kick-off due to Ivan Cleary’s controversial decision to rest 16 Penrith players, but the Panthers’ young stars did their future hopes of making it big no harm at all with a determined effort against a ruthless Canterbury.

The victory meant that the Bulldogs were able to consolidate third spot on the NRL ladder whilst Penrith will have a tougher finals run-in due to defeat.

But Cleary is no stranger to making big decisions and a whole new side from the one that lost to Canberra last week was a way of giving his star players a rest ahead of the finals.

Canterbury weren’t about to give the young Panthers any kind of leeway though as Jacob Preston registered a hat-trick for the Bulldogs with the second-rower being impressive throughout whilst captain Stephen Crichton was once more influential.

For the Bulldogs, Viliame Kikau dropped out after being hospitalised following a skin infection, with Josh Curran replacing him. Harry Hayes also dropped out of the side due to a hamstring injury, with Daniel Suluka-Fifita coming in.

The visitors actually started the brighter of the two sides, Daine Laurie almost fighting his way to the line in the opening exchanges, but it was Canterbury that struck first when Curran rampaged through a huge gap before offloading to Lachlan Galvin for his first try in the Blue and White.

Penrith were cut down to 12 men moments later as Zac Lipowicz was found guilty of a hip-drop tackle on Matt Burton, but even then superb last-ditch tackles kept Sitili Tupouniua and Connor Tracey out.

The Bulldogs did finally grab their second with six minutes remaining in the first half, Crichton and Tracey linking up to send Preston over for his first. This time Burton converted for a 10-0 lead at the break.

Things didn’t exactly change much in the second half, either, with both Preston and Bailey Hayward being held up before Galvin outstripped the Penrith defence to hand Preston an easy second.

And 16-0 soon became 22-0 as Burton bamboozled his way past Brad Schneider to streak over against his former club.

But credit must go to the Panthers for the way in which they never gave in. The visitors were rewarded for their efforts when Laurie fired out a magnificent pass for Paul Alamoti to cross in the corner, though the latter couldn’t convert his own try.

Try as they might, however, the young Panthers just couldn’t live with the pace and power of the hosts and Preston settled proceedings with 12 minutes remaining, showing tremendous footwork and agility to step past Laurie for his hat-trick try.

Burton rounded off the scoring with his conversion to make it 28-4, but Penrith were by no means disgraced as they look for their fifth successive NRL Premiership triumph.

GAMESTAR: Jacob Preston notched a hat-trick and was brilliant throughout.

GAMEBREAKER: Two Canterbury tries in seven second-half minutes made it 22-0.

MATCHFACTS
BULLDOGS
1 Connor Tracey
2 Jacob Kiraz
3 Bronson Xerri
4 Stephen Crichton
5 Marcelo Montoya
6 Matt Burton
7 Lachlan Galvin
8 Max King
9 Bailey Hayward
10 Samuel Hughes
11 Josh Curran
12 Jacob Preston
13 Jaeman Salmon
Subs (all used)
14 Kurt Mann
15 Sitili Tupouniua
16 Daniel Suluka-Fifita
17 Reed Mahoney

Tries: Galvin (17), Preston (34, 48, 68), Burton (55)
Goals: Burton 3/4, Crichton 1/1

PANTHERS
1 Daine Laurie
2 Jesse McLean
3 Sione Fonua
4 David Fale
5 Paul Alamoti
6 Jack Cole
7 Brad Schneider
8 Luron Patea
9 Luke Sommerton
10 Austin Dias
11 Zac Lipowicz
12 Mavrik Geyer
13 Matt Eisenhuth
Subs (all used)
14 Soni Luke
15 Preston Riki
16 Riley Price
17 Billy Phillips

Tries: Alamoti (58)
Goals: Alamoti 0/1
Sin bin: Lipowicz (23) – dangerous tackle

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 10-0; 16-0, 22-0, 22-4, 28-4

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Bulldogs: Jacob Preston; Panthers: Matt Eisenhuth

Penalty count: 6-6
Half-time: 10-0
Referee: Wyatt Raymond
Attendance: 23,597