Expeditive Eels Too Good For Biteless Bulldogs

An inspired move by Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur to put Chris Sandow at fullback has helped the Eels to a comfortable 22-12 win over an origin depleted Canterbury Bulldogs side in front of just over 24,000 fans at ANZ Stadium.

The biggest surprise of the day was from the opening set when Parramatta Eels halfback Chris Sandow began the game in both attack and defence; meanwhile the Bulldogs pulled their own positional changes with Michael Ennis playing most of the game at halfback.

The first quarter of the match was an even contest with most of the play taking place through the middle section of the field, both sides had their own chances to score but poor play in attack and some good defence stopped the play.

The opening points came through the NRL's own Semi-Trailer, Semi Radradra. The opening try came through a 95m intercept when attacking from the Scrum the Bulldogs threw an intercept and the Eels opened the scoring.

From there it only took the Eels five minutes to extend their lead out to 10-0 when Chris Sandow sliced through some flimsy defence to set up Vai Toutai in the corner, Sandow missed the conversion from out wide and the score remained at 10-0.

The second half started well for the Bulldogs with Corey Thompson showing some good skill to keep himself inside the field of play and after video referee review get the green lights to bring the score back to 10-6.

That was as close as the Bulldogs got all afternoon with the Eels able to score successive tries including Vai Toutai's second in the 57th minute, then Ryan Morgan crossed for his own pair of tries in the 67th and 74th minutes, all three tries went unconverted and the score remained at 22-6.

Approaching the final siren, Corey Thompson scored after the Eels weren't able to clean up the ball at the back and with the conversion the score came back to 22-12.

Next weekend, the Bulldogs welcome back their Origin stars for a road trip down to the nation's capital when they take on the Canberra Raiders, meanwhile the Eels don't have an easy task when they travel down to Melbourne to take on the Storm at AAMI Park next Sunday.

CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS (12)
Tries: Corey Thompson (2)
Conversions: Krisnan Inu (2/2)

PARRAMATTA EELS (22)
Tries: Semi Radradra, Vai Toutai (2), Ryan Morgan (2)
Field Goals: Chris Sandow (0/1)
Conversions: Chris Sandow (1/4), Luke Kelly (0/1)

TEAM CHANGES: A couple of changes for the Bulldogs - Reni Maitua drops back to the bench with Josh Jackson moving to five-eighth, with Corey Thompson coming into the side in jersey 19, Lloyd Perrett drops off the extended bench

TEAM CHANGES: Just the one change for the Blue and Gold - Ken Sio is OUT, with Luke Kelly coming into the side at Fullback

The Parramatta Eels are out on the field at ANZ Stadium

The Bulldogs will kick off and the Parramatta Eels have the first possession

1: Parra kick on the last and Sam Perrett takes it on the full and the Bulldogs work it up towards halfway on tackle 3

2: Bulldogs make it to the 30m line in their first set then go to the air with the big Semi taking it on his own line comfortably

3: Some sneaky positional changes from the Eels early - Chris Sandow defending during the opening sets at Fullback

4: Another sneaky positional change - Damien Cook looks like he's play dummy half for the Bulldogs with Michael Ennis taking on halfback role

5: Chris Sandow loses his shorts and manages to get through the defensive line and almost scores

6: Despite starting the set on their own goalline, the Bulldogs get to halfway before kicking it to the ingoal where its cleaned up by Radradra

7: A conservative end to the set for the Eels with the kick being put over the sideline about 20m out from the Dogs line

11: Poor end to the set from Michael Ennis, puts the ball out on the full and the Eels start their set around halfway

12: Ken Edwards gets away from two Bulldogs defenders and flicks a pass towards Semi Radradra but its touched by Corey Thompson and goes into touch

13: UNFORCED ERROR PARRAMATTA EELS
Corey Norman makes an unforced error.
Corey Norman throws an awful pass in trying a set play and its cleaned up by the Bulldogs on their own line

14: Michael Ennis tries to put a kick in and its charged down by Joseph Paulo but luckily for the Dogs Sam Perrett just got the ball first

15: Damien Cook goes himself from dummy half on the last but Parramatta hold him up easily short of the line

16: AMAZING flick back from Sam Perrett to leap outside of the field of play to stop a 40/20

17: The Parramatta Eels are down to 3 on the bench with Manu Ma'u suffering from a suspected fractured forearm

18: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Semi Radradra. Kick to come.
The big Semi takes a beautiful intercept to race 95m to score under the posts against the run of play

20: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Chris Sandow successful.
Chris Sandow has converted it from in front

23: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Vai Toutai. Kick to come.
Chris Sandow slices the Bulldogs defence with ease before giving it to Vai Toutai who scored in the corner

24: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Chris Sandow unsuccessful.
Chris Sandow goes for the hook on the conversion but puts a bit too much on it and the touch judges wave it away

26: UNFORCED ERROR PARRAMATTA EELS
Joseph Paulo makes an unforced error.
Joseph Paulo loses the ball and the Bulldogs get the scrum on halfway

28: PENALTY EELS: Matt Cecchin doesn't need the Video Referee for that one, with Krisnan Inu giving us a textbook Double Movement

29: PENALTY BULLDOGS: Eels penalised for being offside, Bulldogs take the tap on the 10m line

31: A poor set of six from the Dogs in attack again, sees Chris Sandow take the kick easily on his own try line

33: Well that was different..... Chris Sandow throws the pass over the touch in goal line after cleaning up the kick

35: PENALTY BULLDOGS: Parramatta penalised for making a second effort before Michael Ennis threatens to throw the ball at the Eels defender

38: Chris Sandow looks to be the genius man of the game today - goes short with the dropout then Parra end up with the ball after the clean up was messed up by the Dogs

39: Parramatta make some good space for themselves in attack but end up throwing an intercept

39: Sam Perrett is off the field and straight up the tunnel

40: UNFORCED ERROR PARRAMATTA EELS
Willie Tonga makes an unforced error.
Willie Tonga drops the ball and gives perfect attacking position to the Dogs

40: Half Time at ANZ Stadium and the Eels are leading by 10-0

40: The Parramatta Eels back out on the field and will be looking to extend their lead

40: Who Let the Dogs Out bursts out around ANZ Stadium which means the Bulldogs are also back out on field

40: Play back underway and its the Bulldogs with first possession and they defend the Northern End of ANZ Stadium

40: UNFORCED ERROR PARRAMATTA EELS
Chris Sandow makes an unforced error.
Chris Sandow drops the torpedo bomb from Michael Ennis and the Bulldogs get a scrum 15m out from the Bulldogs line

44: VIDEO REFEREE: Corey Thompson looks to have scored in the southwestern corner - checking obstruction, grounding and sideline - Matt Cecchin says TRY

44: TRY CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Scored by Corey Thompson. Kick to come.
Some great play from Tony Williams to put Corey Thompson through in the corner

46: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Conversion attempt by Krisnan Inu successful.
The Smiling assassin Krisnan Inu converts from out wide to close the gap

48: The Bulldogs push in the scrum and look to win it against the feed but Henry Perenara calls it back because everyone broke early from it

50: PENALTY BULLDOGS: Matt Cecchin rules that Willie Tonga stripped the ball from the Bulldogs player

50: Krisnan Inu down injured - Video Referees asked to check for a possible crusher tackle

52: PENALTY EELS: Some good work from Chris Sandow earns himself the penalty

55: PENALTY EELS: Bulldogs penalised for a strip and the Eels start the set on the 40m line

55: PENALTY EELS: Bulldogs penalised yet again for a strip

57: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Vai Toutai. Kick to come.
Vai Toutai goes through to score in the corner with Pauli Pauli doing some goody goody work

59: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Chris Sandow unsuccessful.
Chris Sandow pushes the kick wide to keep the Try unconverted

63: Josh Jackson scores in the corner but it is called back by Matt Cecchin for a forward pass

64: This is a strip fest at ANZ Stadium - that's the fifth penalty for a strip this afternoon

65: Some messy play ends up with a handover for the Bulldogs 10m out

67: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Ryan Morgan. Kick to come.
Another try set up by some good ball work from Pauli Pauli again out wide

69: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Chris Sandow unsuccessful.
Chris Sandow misses the goal once again

70: UNFORCED ERROR CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Krisnan Inu makes an unforced error.
Krisnan Inu has an open tryline and drops the ball short of the line

73: Bulldogs attack on the goalline and then throw an intercept to Ken Edwards

74: UNSUCCESSFUL FIELD GOAL PARRAMATTA EELS
Field goal attempt by Chris Sandow unsuccessful.
Chris Sandow goes for the one pointer but it is well wide

74: VIDEO REFEREE: Matt Cecchin wants to give the try but the assistant referee Henry Perenara wants the Video Referees to check the possible Ryan Morgan try

74: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Ryan Morgan. Kick to come.
The Eels cleans up the Bulldogs mistake and Ryan Morgan races away to score beating a number of defenders

76: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Luke Kelly unsuccessful.
Luke Kelly misses the conversion

78: UNFORCED ERROR PARRAMATTA EELS
Semi Radradra makes an unforced error.
Semi Radradra drops the ball after Willie Tonga throws a pass that might as well be aimed back to Lidcombe with the power it was thrown with

78: VIDEO REFEREE: Chris Sandow doesn't want to make any contact with the ball and Corey Thompson looks to have scored, Matt Cecchin says NO TRY

79: TRY CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Scored by Corey Thompson. Kick to come.
Corey Thompson gets the green lights from the Video Referees

80: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Conversion attempt by Krisnan Inu successful.
Krisnan Inu converts the try to bring some respectability back to the scoreline

80: That's FULL TIME at ANZ Stadium and the Parramatta Eels have scored a 22-12 victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs