Defending premiers Newtown have made it three wins in a row by beating old arch rivals Canterbury 30-18 in their VB NSW Cup Round 12 battle in tough conditions at Belmore Sports Ground.
Still hurting from being smashed in last year’s preliminary final by the Jets 34-6, the Bulldogs were looking for a bit of revenge against their old neighbours and started the match strongly scoring two unconverted tries in the opening nine minutes.
After receiving a penalty in the 6th minute courtesy of former Bulldog player Yileen Gordon being placed on report for using his knees in a tackle on opposition centre Corey Thompson, Canterbury found themselves in good field position and scored in the next set of six.
Canterbury enforcer Martin Taupau and five-eighth Kris Keating combined in the Jets 20 metre zone to spread the ball down the left and fullback Nathan Massey produced a lovely weighted grubber kick to the corner and Brett Lane won the race to the ball to score his third try in a week to give the Bulldogs an early 4-0 lead.
Despite the rain tumbling down, the Doggies were in again two minutes later when Holden Cup young gun Moses Mbye started an attacking raid down the right edge near halfway with a great cutout pass and was finished by fellow Holden Cup teammate and tryscoring machine John Sila who raced down the touchline to score his first try in the VB NSW Cup and 20th of the season to extend Canterbury’s lead to 8-0.
Yet the Bulldogs made a mess of the restart allowing the ball to go dead from the kickoff and the Jets made them pay a few minutes later.
Newtown prop Ray Moujalli was held up over the line in the 13th minute but two tackles later the Jets wouldn’t be denied when five-eighth Daniel Mortimer grubbered in behind the Bulldogs backline and winger Adam Henry regathered to slide over in the grandstand corner.
Newtown’s other winger Paul Rokolati then nailed a glorious sideline conversion in wet conditions using reverse swing to curl it back from left of the post straight over the black dot to make it 8-6.
Three penalties in as many minutes gave Newtown plenty of momentum midway through the first half and with some fresh troops adding the desired impact off the interchange bench the Jets went on a tryscoring blitz crossing three times in six minutes.
The defending premiers hit the lead for the first time in the 28th minute when reserve forward Josh Ailaomai spun out of a tackle 10 metres out and crashed over 20 metres in from touch.
Three minutes later the Jets went further in front when interchange prop Isaac Liu popped a great ball in his own half to his fleet-footed fullback Henare Wells who hit the hole at pace and ran around his opposition fullback untouched to score a scintillating 50 metre solo try under the posts. Rokolati added the extras for an eight point lead.
Things went from bad to worse for the Bulldogs when Keating sailed the kickoff over the sideline on the full and in the next set halfback Ryley Jacks skipped out of some soft Canterbury defence to cross next to the posts and Rokolati landed his third conversion to make it 22-8.
However the Doggies did peg one try back just before the break when ball-playing backrower Lachlan Burr got a one-handed pass out to his centre Ed Murphy and he waltzed over from close range. Hooker Mbye’s left foot landed the conversion to reduce the deficit to 22-14 at halftime.
With the weather getting worse and the lights already on at Belmore before 4pm it was imperative that Canterbury were first to score after the break.
Unfortunately for the home team poor ball handling and a few wrong options in attack saw them camped in their own half for the opening twenty minutes of the second half and required to do a mountain of defence.
Just when it looked like they had weathered the Jets storm a Mortimer crossfield kick in the 61st minute saw his Jets winger Rokolati soar above Sila and touchdown centimetres inside the dead ball line for his sixth try of the season. The flying winger didn’t have as much luck with his conversion hitting the post but Newtown still lead 26-14.
The Bulldogs finally found some field position in Newtown’s half in the 65th minute after a Jets knock on and hit back almost immediately.
Taupau went kapow and came close to scoring but on the next play the Doggies went wide and Thompson once again showed some fancy footwork to bamboozle the Newtown defence and score.
Mbye missed the crucial conversion so Canterbury still needed to score twice in the final 15 minutes to win.
Once again that man Mortimer, whose famous surname is synonymous with Bulldogs Rugby League royalty, kicking game proved the difference when he hoisted a bomb high 40 metres out in the 71st minute which was caught by a leaping Rokolati who then showed great hands to flick a pass down the blindside to his speedy centre Michael Oldfield and the former Manly flyer had too much pace for the cover to score the matchwinner in the grandstand corner much to the delight of the large number of loyal Jets fans in the crowd. Rokolati missed the conversion so the score remained 30-18.
This weekend the Jets make the trek out to Pioneer Oval, Parkes to play the Windsor Wolves while the Dogs head to Sharks Stadium to play the Bears as part of a VB NSW Cup double header.
Newtown Jets 30 (J Ailaomai, H Wells, A Henry, M Oldfield, P Rokolati, R Jacks tries; P Rokolati 3 goals) def. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 18 (B Lane, C Thompson, E Murphy, J Sila tries; M Mbye goal) at Belmore Sports Ground.
Click here to see the VB NSW Cup Ladder after Round 12
Click here to see the other results from Round 12 of the VB NSW Cup
Article source: http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-news/england-turn-youth-take-barbarians-5447639
Jets too strong for the Dogs at Belmore
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