Bulldogs bite de-fins Cronulla's hopes

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Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

The Canterbury Bulldogs have started a season with four straight wins for the first time in 32 years as they have put on an impressive defensive performance to defeat the Sharks 20-6 at Shark Park.

The home side were the first to celebrate when the Sharks looked to have scored first but the joy was turned to pain when a live decision of No Try from Chris Butler was upheld by the bunker when it was ruled Ronaldo knocked on in the air.

The frustration was further added to soon after when the Bulldogs opened the scoring when Jacob Preston ran a beautiful line and even though he had to juggle a pass he was able to hold the ball to score. Stephen Crichton hit the post with the conversion.

The play went form end-to-end before some ill-discipline on play 6 from Reed Mahoney who was put on report for the first time when Toby Rudolf was hit high and the pressure grew on the visitors when Kayal Iro crossed. Nicho Hynes hit the post with his conversion attempt but thankfully for him and the Sharks the ball went through the posts on the rebound.

Right before half-time, Bronson Xerri scored as the Bulldogs found success down the left once again, a profitable area for the Dogs in the first half. Crichton this time hit the left post with his conversion attempt. The Bulldogs thought they had a third first half try when they found space on the left but it was overturned by Grant Atkins who ruled that after being tackled and passing, Bronson Xerri had grabbed Sam Stonestreet's jersey which stopped him from taking a part in the defensive play.

The second half was a messy start for the hosts and they conceded points early into the second half when Stephen Crichton made amends for the missed goal kicking by putting a four pointer on the scoreboard himself. The conversion was successful and the Bulldogs had a 14-6 lead.

Reed Mahoney went on report for a second time when he came in hard on a Sharks player on the ground with the bunker ruling it high and dangerous before an ensuing push and shove had Chris Butler giving both sides a final warning about players running in.

The Sharks looked panicked in attack and down the other end, Ronaldo Mulitalo couldn't take a catch cleanly which kept putting the hosts under pressure and finally Bronson Xerri was able to crack the line through some soft defence. Crichton converted for a 20-6 lead.

There was only one other scoring chance and that came inside the final 10 minutes when Chris Butler gave the Sharks fans hope sending up what he thought was a potential penalty try after deeming a Shark got taken before he got the ball. The bunker however didn't need long to rule there was no infringement by the Bulldogs with just 1 or 2 replays clearing any contact and a knock-on was ruled.

The win hasn't come without issue for the Bulldogs with Reed Mahoney on report twice whilst Sitili Tupouniua was sin binned after the siren and put on report for an unnecessary late shot with force on one of the Sharks players.

The loss also hurts the Sharks with Kayal Iro suffering a hamstring injury and Sifa Talakai failing his Head Injury Assessment along with a few other niggles.

Next week, the Sharks have a tough task heading down to Canberra to take on the Raiders whilst the Bulldogs play their first game of the season at Accor Stadium against the Knights on Sunday night.