Bulldogs' Comeback Falls Short In Tough NRLW Loss To Eels

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs’ second half comeback has fallen short, going down 30-18 to a spirited Parramatta Eels outfit at CommBank Stadium.

It was a tale of two halves with the Eels, who were yet to win a game this season, shot out to a 24-0 lead at the break before a fired-up Bulldogs side clicked into gear to drag themselves back into the contest – but their efforts to be too little, too late.

After a stop-start opening 10 minutes to the contest, the Bulldogs copped a major blow when Latisha Smythe was sin-binned for a professional foul. The Eels capitalised on their one-player advantage instantly scoring two tries to shoot out to a handy 12-0 lead.

Taneka Todhunter darted out of dummy-half to score the first, just three tackles after Smythe was binned, before the Eels soon struck again with Rachael Pearson on the spot to catch an offload and score under the posts.

Pearson had a hand in the Eels’ next time with the veteran No.7 coming up with a pinpoint cross-field kick for Mahalia Murphy to catch and score.

Two minutes later Parramatta were in again with Murphy again playing a key role. The skipper busted out of a tackle before finding Cassey Tohi-Hiku in support, who ran 40 metres to score. Pearson slotted the conversion from out wide to extend the Eels’ lead to 24-0 at half time.

The Bulldogs desperately needed to score next and they did exactly that with a flying Monica Tagoai sprinting through with her arms set and ready to catch a Tayla Preston kick. Preston converted the try to take the score to 24-6.

They backed that up with another try five minutes later. It came off the back of a strong run from front-rower Alexis Tauaneai, followed by quick scoop and reach for the line out of dummy-half from 18-year-old hooker Evelyn Roberts. Preston converted once again to narrow the scoreline to 24-12.

The Dogs’ comeback was now well and truly on and they closed the gap even further when Tauaneai pounced on a perfectly weighted grubber from Preston to score. The try was converted to take the score to 24-18.

But their momentum came to screeching halt when Tamika Jones was sin-binned for what was deemed to be a hip-drop tackle. The Bulldogs did well to hang on for almost the entire 10 minutes – until Abbi Church crossed to seal the Eels’ win in the 62nd minute.