The Bulldogs remained on top of the Australian National Rugby League table yesterday, despite suffering their first loss of the year, a 12-38 thrashing at the hands of the Sydney Roosters.
In a sixth round when inconsistency again dogged big-name teams, the Roosters used a fine defensive performance at the Sydney
Football Stadium to jump to third place. They are one point behind the Bulldogs and trail the Brisbane Broncos only on points difference.
The Roosters absorbed plenty of first-half pressure from the Bulldogs before taking a 14-6 lead to the break, and then went away with it in the second spell, with fine individual tries to standoff Brad Fittler and hooker Craig Wing the highlights.
In-form New Zealand centre Willie Talau was placed on report for dropping his knees in a tackle.
The highly rated Parramatta Eels lost comprehensively, 6-22, to the Canberra Raiders, leaving them with a record that shows alternate wins and losses each week this season.
With his side down 0-14 at the break, Eels prop Alex Chan ruined their chances of a comeback when he became the first player in the competition to be sent off this season, for a high tackle early in the half.
Shortly afterwards, a try to New Zealand winger Lesley Vainikolo made the game safe for Canberra.
The Melbourne Storm lurched through another poor performance, losing 28-36 to the Newcastle Knights.
Following their 10-40 embarrassment against the Wests Tigers the previous weekend, even worse seemed on the cards for Melbourne when they trailed 0-30 at halftime. But five second-half tries made the scoreline respectable.
The Knights host the Warriors this week.
The Sharks were the only team to win away from home, beating Penrith 31-12 to keep the Panthers firmly in last place.
Wests Tigers came crashing back to earth from their thrashing of Melbourne last week, going down 10-24 to the North Queensland Cowboys in
On Friday night, St George Illawarra broke a four-game losing streak in style by caning the Northern Eagles 48-18.
- NZPA
