Match Details
Match Date	14th Apr, 2001
Opponent	Wests Tigers
Result	Win 16-14
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Darren Britt
Venue	Campbelltown (Stadium)
Crowd	14,632
Referee	Tim Mander

The Bulldogs nearly choked again two weeks in a row after leading Wests Tigers 16-nil just after halftime but this week the poor goal kicking of Joel Caine saw the Bulldogs hold on to a narrow 16-14 victory.

Canterbury started the game much stronger with strong defence but except for an early try to Hazem El-Masri where Caine was caught out on the wing following a Corey Hughes cut out pass, the Bulldogs couldn't convert the early dominance into more points. Wests Tigers started to get on a roll midway through the first half following some home-town penalties from Tim Mander but the Bulldogs defence found some of that 1980's bite and held firm.

Right on halftime, Darrell Trindall setup the Bulldogs second try with a grubber into the ingoal where lock forward Travis Norton dived on the ball to score. El-Masri's conversion saw the Bulldogs take a 12-nil lead into the break.

Not long after halftime, the Bulldogs were over for their 3rd try when Caine lost the ball in a Luke Patten tackle with El-Masri swooping on the ball for his 2nd try of the game. With El-Masri missing the goal, the Bulldogs led 16-nil.

But as in previous weeks, the Bulldogs clocked off early with the Wests Tigers staging a great comeback. John Simon got the ball rolling when he intercepted a Nigel Vagana pass to race 30m to score. Caine missed the conversion with the Tigers down 16-4.

A great chip kick by Simon into the ingoal resulted in Wests 2nd try when John Carlaw outpaced a sluggish Shane Marteene to dive on the ball and score. Caine missed a crucial conversion attempt see the Tigers down by more than a converted try at 16-8.

Wests Tigers scored their 3rd try when Lincoln Withers scored in the 71st minute from an unforgivible El-Masri error he tried to kick a Ben Black grubber into the ingoal dead instead of diving on it. Caine converted to see the Tigers down by two at 16-14.

The Bulldogs defence held on in the final minutes to return to the winners circles. The win in the end was hard fought for the Bulldogs but they should have ran away with the game early.

At the end of the day, it was the goal kicking of the Bulldogs that won them the game, which is very surprising. El-Masri is one of the worst goal kickers in the NRL while Caine was leading pointscorer last year. Best for the Bulldogs were Darren Britt, Travis Norton, Jamie Feeney and Adam Peek. While for Wests Tigers John Simon for mine was the man of the match with good games also for Jason Lowrie, Ben Black and Lincoln Withers.

If there is a highlight for Wests Tigers, it was the very strong crowd of 14,632 that turned up but being live at the venue, there looked to be more like 16,000 there. After all the recent dramas, it was great to see the fans back at the footy and also a thumbs up of support for the 5.30pm kick offs, which is a great idea.

Source: www.rleague.com

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