Bulldogs Suffer Heartbreaking Loss To Rabbitohs

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have suffered a heartbreaking 22-6 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Home soil.

With a potential finals spot up for grabs this clash was billed as one of the matches of Round 24 and despite a spirited start from the Bulldogs, it was the Rabbitohs who put on a show to walk away winners.

After some end-to-end footy and exciting passage of play opened things up in the middle with Bailey Hayward, Leo Thompson and Connor Tracey linking up. Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau then combined down the left edge with the former coming painfully close to scoring first points of the game – only for a desperate try-saver from Jack Wighton holding him up over the line.

The Bulldogs came close once again with Jethro Rinakama winning the contest in the air to catch a Lachlan Galvin kick. The young gun winger charged towards the line but held up by some more desperate goal-line defence.

But it was the Rabbitohs who eventually got on the board first. It all came off the back of a contentious dangerous tackle penalty after Kikau’s one-on-one tackle on Bud Sullivan. Souths capitalised on that and Cody Walker put a grubber in for second-rower David Fifita. Sullivan kicked the conversion to take the score to 6-0.

They backed it up six minutes later with Walker again having a hand in the lead-up before Alex Johnston crossed in the corner. Sullivan’s conversion attempt was waved away, leaving the score 10-0 heading into half time.

It was a chaotic opening couple of minutes of the second half with an error from the Bulldogs off the kick-off handing the Rabbitohs a golden opportunity. They struck straight away with Tallis Duncan crossing. The score remained 14-0 after a failed conversion attempt from Sullivan, who looked to pick up a groin injury in the process.

Things then went from bad to worse for the Dogs with Rinakama succumbing to a knee injury who picked up earlier in the game. That forced a shake-up to the backline with Enari Tuala shifting to left wing and Bronson Xerri coming into the game at right centre.

With just under 20 minutes left on the clock the Bulldogs needed to score next to keep the game alive – and they did just that with Matt Burton dragging in Rabbitohs defenders before setting up Enari Tuala. Crichton slotted the sideline conversion to take the score to 18-6.

Although that sparked some momentum for the Dogs, it wasn’t enough to inspire a comeback and the Rabbitohs sealed the win with a late try to Matt Dufty in the 77th minute.