Round 23
Bulldogs 26 d. Dragons 10

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Dragons lose five straight
Sun August 13, 2006
The Bulldogs have continued the line of thinking that this year's premiership is a race in two between the Blue and Whites and the Storm. Backing up their pre-match talk of confronting the Dragons pack head on the Bulldogs overwhelmed the Dragons in the forwards to come out with a comfortable 26-10 victory in front of 31,000 fans at Telstra Stadium.

After racing to a 16-0 lead in the first half the Bulldogs were never headed dispite a drop in intensity throughout the second half. The dragons showed enough determination with field position and possession but were never able to overcome the Bulldogs in the forwards or keep their mistake rate in check.

The Bulldogs on the other hand played a simple game of power and patience. They opened the scoring just five minutes into the match after capitalising on their own mis-directed pass that hit the ground and rushed three Dragons defenders out of the defensive line. Luke Patten was on the spot to tip off the ball to Brent Sherwin who strolled through a yawning gap to score besides the posts.

Soon after Willie Mason crashed through a number of defenders to score and a 12-0 indicated it was to be a long day for the Dragons.

It got worse as Sonny Bill Williams and Nate Myles came on to replace Willie Mason and Mark O'Meley, and it paid dividends minutes later as Sonny Bill lurked wide, palmed off Mathew Head and set up a try for Hazem El Masri in the corner. The trusty goalkicker missed his first conversion in weeks but the Bulldogs were ahead 16-0.

The Dragons responded with a try to Brett Morris, the Dragons winger used his pace to catch Bulldogs winger Trent Cutler in off his wing and no chance to stop Morris running onto the ball.

The Bulldogs looked certain to go ahead further after coming within inches on no less than 3 times in one attacking set before Andrew Emelio crossed off a bomb on the last. But the video referee ruled a knock on by Hazem El Masri in the leap for the ball and the Dragons were reprieved.

Ahead 16-4 at halftime the Bulldogs didn't take long to push further ahead when Sonny Bill Williams took advantage of some smart lead up work by Daniel Holdsworth. Holdsworth scooped a pass off the ground, before flicking the ball inside to Sonny Bill who proved unstoppable meters out from the line.

Trent Barrett kept the Dragons in reach with a try besides the posts in the 49th minute before the second half turned into a try-less arm wrestle. The Bulldogs kicked ahead to a 26-10 lead with two penalty goals in the 58th and 79th minutes, but were never really threatened.

Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes was happy the Bulldogs came away with the points but sent an ominous warning out to the rest of the teams in the competition saying, "we can play better".

"Theres a lot of things we can do better. It was a fairly disappointing second half, we lacked creativity, we were back too far off advantage line and too many poor fifth tackle options," said Folkes

"This stage of the year need to be practising playing at our best for 80 minutes, cause that's what you'll need to do to win this thing."

Dragons coach Nathan Brown was disappointed with the result but indicated the Dragons played well in patches, they just need to put it together for the full 80 minutes.

"Credit to a pretty good side we played today, but our biggest problem is when to play footy and when not to play footy," said Brown.

"Our problem is different people each week trying too hard at different times to win the game for us and coming up with too many mistakes. It's not one player, it's a group thing. The efforts fine, but just crucial decisions are letting the team down."

"We came here today to play positive footy, and we did, we had more line breaks that the Bulldogs, but we just couldn't get the footy to the right person."

The win virtually secures the Bulldogs second place spot clearing a six point gap between third place. The Dragons season is at the cross roads following their fifth straight loss crashing the former premiership favourites into seventh place.

While their place in the eight is almost confirmed with a four point gap from 8th to 9th place on the table and three games against teams outside the eight to come; the Dragons must improve their for and against to avoid a repeat clash against the Bulldogs at Telstra or a trip to Olympic park to meet Melbourne in week one of the finals.

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