Canterbury Bulldogs growled in the second half to surge home and defeat St George Illawarra 29-16 in the NRL round 13 clash on Monday at ANZ Stadium.
The Dragons lead 16-10 midway through the second half until the Bulldogs produced a points avalanche — scoring three tries, kicking two goals and a field goal — to win.
With the NSW State of Origin team to be announced today, June 9, for the second clash with Queensland on June 17, in Melbourne, it was the last chance for Blues incumbents Josh Dugan and Trent Merrin to stake their selection claims.
The Bulldogs had the better of the opening 20 minutes, racing to a 10-0 lead through tries to winger Curtis Rona and former Dragons backline star Josh Morris.
The Dragons were lacklustre in the opening stages with the Bulldogs making easy gains through the rucks.
Both Bulldogs tries came down the Dragons right hand side defence, with halfback Trent Hodkinson and five-eighth Moses Mbye finding holes in the Dragons defensive line.
The Dragons defenders who saw plenty of attack come their way were centre Euan Aitken, halfback Benji Marshall and winger Jason Nightingale.
Former Dragons star Brett Morris was cleared to play against his old club after missing seven matches with a hamstring tear.
It was a strange sight for Dragons fans to see Morris as the Bulldogs fullback.
Dragons second rower Joel Thompson was cleared to play after passing a fitness test on his injured hamstring.
Dragons five-eighth Gareth Widdop scored a try which he converted to reduce the leeway to 10-6 in the Bulldogs favour at halftime.
Widdop scored his second try when he rushed through the flimsy Bulldogs defence to score and he converted for the Dragons to lead 12-10 after 46 minutes.
The Bulldogs were too good in the final 20 minutes with their forwards and five-eighth Moses Mbye outstanding.
The Dragons have the bye next week and will face Sydney Roosters on Monday night, June 22, at Allianz Stadium.
Canterbury Bulldogs 29 d St George Illawarra 16 (Gareth Widdop two tries, Peter Mata’utia tries, Gareth Widdop two goals); Leader man of the match: Dragons five-eighth Gareth Widdop. Crowd: 27,291.
