Bulldogs Go Down In Brisbane

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have suffered a 32-12 loss to the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp stadium.

The Bulldogs were hit with adversity early when Viliame Kikau suffered a pectoral injury. The star second-rower bravely tried to play on but ultimately succumbed to it and left the field 20 minutes into the game.

They then lost workhorse forward Harry Hayes to the sin-bin after the referee deemed that he had tripped Adam Reynolds.

Amidst this, the Broncos shot out to a 10-0 lead after Ezra Mam set up back-to-back tries for Gehamat Shibasaki and Josiah Karapani. Reynolds then added another two points after the Hayes binning to extend the lead to 12-0.

Brisbane capitalised on their one-man advantage by running in two more tries – scored by Deine Mariner and Cory Paix - to take the score to 20-0 at half-time.  

The Broncos picked up where they left off in the second half with Mam scoring in the corner, but their joy was short-lived with Preston Riki being sent to the sin-bin soon after for a dangerous tackle.

Cameron Ciraldo’s men needed to score next to kickstart a potential comeback and that’s what they did with Kurt Mann stepping into space before finding try-scorer Matt Burton in support.

They backed that up with another try with Bailey Hayward setting it up with a double pump before sending Lachlan Galvin into space and over the line. Captain Stephen Crichton added the extras to take the score to 26-12.

But the Broncos sealed the win with an Xavier Willison try in the 78th minute, taking the final score to 32-12.