South Sydney Rabbitohs
A potentially serious ankle injury to South Sydney enforcer Sam Burgess further soured the Rabbitohs' 36-24 NRL loss to Canterbury on Saturday night.
Burgess left the field in the 63rd minute with a suspected broken left ankle with the Rabbitohs in the midst of a Chris Sandow-inspired comeback at ANZ Stadium.
Trailing by just two points at the time, South Sydney conceded a try to Aiden Tolman which extended the Bulldogs' lead to eight points and killed off a game in which Ben Barba dominated.
Just moments before it looked like Sandow had single-handedly showed the NRL, and the crowd of 22,352, why Parramatta are reportedly prepared to offer him $800,000 ($1,072,040) over three years.
The diminutive halfback scored a try, kicked a 40/20 and booted sideline conversions as the Rabbitohs clawed their way back from 20-6 down to 20-18 before the Burgess injury drastically halted their momentum.
In a dramatic contest, Bulldogs centre Jamal Idris won his second duel of the year against Souths superstar Greg Inglis, which was highlighted by a powerful run in the 31st minute where he fended off multiple defenders - including John Sutton twice - to set up Grant Millington.
That try gave the Bulldogs a 14-6 lead, after earlier unconverted tries to Trent Hodkinson and Barba had cancelled out Dave Taylor's fifth minute effort for Souths.
Following on from his three-try performance against Parramatta last week, Barba was involved in everything.
He set up Michael Ennis' try right on halftime and threw the final pass for Steve Turner's 72nd minute effort before finishing the match with a brilliant 40 metre effort in the dying minutes to secure the victory.
His two-try performance, which took him to the top of the competition's top tryscorers list with eight, capped off a dream week in which his partner gave birth to their second child, Bronte.
Burgess was not the only player to finish with an injury, with debutant fullback James Roberts leaving the game with a suspected fractured forearm, while in the first half Bulldogs forward Michael Hodgson fainted moments after taking the field and was helped to the sheds, where he stayed for the rest of the match.
Bulldogs recruit Greg Eastwood made his first appearance of the season after recovering from surgery on both wrists, while Bulldogs centre Josh Morris made a successful return from a knee injury.
Bulldogs 36 (B Barba 2 M Ennis T Hodkinson G Millington A Tolman S Turner tries B Goodwin 4 goals) bt South Sydney 24 (C McQueen N Merritt C Sandow D Taylor tries C Sandow 4 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins, Tony De Las Heras. Crowd: 22,352.
- AAP
