NRL REVIEW ROUND 12

Titans were again the big winners of the round but then, there's only been 3 games so far.

The first pre-origin round of the year saw only half the teams going around, the last two face off tomorrow night when the Broncos meet the Warriors in Brisbane.

The round kicked off on Friday night when local rivals Stgeorge and Canterbury battled it out at ANZ stadium.

The was much controversy in the game and a few players are on report but the end result had taken all of these elements into account.

The Bulldogs were ahead 12-nil till the end of the first half when Jamie Soward score close to the sideline with an overlap.

Ben Barba then went in late and flopped on Soward and there was speculation that he went in with knees. He did not lead with his knees but there was definite contact and it was definitely late and Barba is on report. The Dragons were also awarded an 8 point try because of this and it was 12-8 at half time.

In the second half the brilliant defence from both sides continued and the bulldogs edged ahead 16-8 and seemed to control the game until a big Dragon effort got the score back to 16-14.

Then in the last minute of the game as the Dragons threw everything at the Bulldogs on the 5th tackle the ball was kicked and late contact was made on the kicker. Ben Barba grabbed the ball and in an amazing 70 metre run saw him plant the ball over the line for a try. The video refs were called in and the try was disallowed due to the late contact on the Dragons kicker. The penalty is awarded where the ball landed and so it went back to the Bulldogs 30 metre line.

The full time buzzer had sounded and Jamie Soward decided to take a shot at goal to level it up and go into extra time.

Remarkably the goal was missed and it was game over.

Whilst it would have been disappointing for the Dragons fans, these are the football games you want to watch when it all goes down to the wire. I would have been gutted if the Bulldogs let that go when they were in such control and I am very glad they got the win.

This was a history breaking result for the Bulldogs as it was the first time since being coached by Des Hasler that the team had won on less than 20 points. Previously if the Bulldogs failed to get to the 20 point mark they had lost every time. Also every time they made at least 20 they always won.

Now there should be belief that they can win these low scoring defensive games.

The other games saw the Bunnies hold on to beat a strong Newcastle effort 25-18 after a 12-all half time score.

The Titans meanwhile flogged an under strength Cowboys side 31-12.

Origin starts this week and I cant see anything but a QLD whitewash of the blues. Whilst it would be great to win a series after 7 years of nothing, I don't think Daley or the team selected have the metal to turn it around this year.

We shall see.

This blog wraps up the second 6 week cycle of blogs and tomorrow will see Blog Report #2 posted where you can see the stats of my blogs and all the statical updates.

I will also be announcing the new format for my blogs in the next 6 week cycle. There are definitely going to be some changes.

The NRL blog is moving to Mondays so that the final game can be a part of that weeks blog report.

For all the other changes, come back tomorrow night.

J G S