The Canterbury Bulldogs held off a fast-finishing Newtown Jets side with a 26-24 win at Belmore Oval.
Coming off a 40-point loss the week before, the Bulldogs desperately needed to get off to a good start – which they did courtesy of a Tautalatasi Tasi first half hat trick.
Canterbury Bulldogs 26 (T Tasi 3, L Dodd, S Lane tries; Dodd 3 goals) bt Newtown Jets 24 (N Gardner, C Brown, N Mataitinga, R Moujalli tries; Gardner 4 goals)
Wentworthville Magpies 48 (B Faraimo 2, Z Docker-Clay 2, T Lasalo, J Folau, J Aloiai, D Alvaro tries; C Sandow 8 goals) bt NZ Warriors 6 (J Bell try; M Lino goal)
SUMMARY: Chris Sandow’s fall from Parramatta’s first-grade team proved Wentworthville’s gain as the halfback led the Magpies to a 48-6 drubbing over the Warriors. The out-of-favour number seven was instrumental in the Magpies’ 42-point victory, setting up four of his side’s eight tries in his return to form.
North Sydney Bears 26 (D Millard, J Garlick, F Junior Mauala, C Walker, D Nicholls tries; Nicholls 3 goals) bt Penrith Panthers 18 (E Alono, C Smith, T Eisenhuth tries; W Smith 3 goals)
SUMMARY: North Sydney caused one of the upsets of the season defeating Penrith 26-18. Led by Daryl Millard, the Bears took full advantage of a sloppy first half performance from the Panthers to lead 16-0 at halftime before Penrith hit back during the second half to lead 18-16 with ten minutes remaining. But it was the Bears who prevailed through tries to Walker and Nicholls to seal a memorable win.
Wyong Roos 30 (B Elliot 2, N MacDonald 2, N Stapleton, O Slaimankhel tries; Stapleton 3 goals) bt Mounties 14 (J Ahearn, B Tupou, L Bateman tries; S Duggan goal)
SUMMARY: The Wyong Roos beat Mounties 30-14 in a see-sawing contest at Aubrey Keech Reserve. The two sides traded tries during the opening 40 minutes and a 40th-minute try to Mounties gave them a 14-12 halftime lead. However it was all Wyong in the second half who held their opponents scoreless while adding three tries of their own to run out comfortable winners.
Wests Tigers 20 (L Liolevave, J Sila, T Moltzen, N Milone tries; J Drinkwater 2 goals) bt Newcastle Knights 18 (H Tuha 3, N Ross tries; D Phythian goal)
SUMMARY: The Knights let a 10-nil lead slip as Tim Moltzen returned from injury to lead the Wests Tigers to the come-from-behind victory as they scored three tries in 10 minutes for a strong road win.
This article first appeared on www.nswrl.com.au