Match Details
Match Date	20th May, 2007
Opponent	Cronulla
Result	Loss 20-30
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Corey Hughes
Venue	Homebush (Telstra Stadium)
Crowd	12,384
Referee	Ben Cummins

Cronulla have withstood a furious Bulldogs comeback to notch a 30-20 NRL victory at Telstra Stadium.

Cronulla backrower Paul Gallen finally put the Sharks out of reach with a well-deserved try two minutes from time, the visitors racing in five tries to the Bulldogs' four.

Both sides had scored four tries before Gallen's last-ditch effort, with Hazem El Masri's two missed conversions leaving the home side trailing by four points.

In contrast opposite Luke Covell was a perfect five from five, the Sharks with their sixth win of the season and third in a row.

Up 12-0 just 30 seconds before the break, the Sharks found themselves clinging to a two-point lead just six minutes after the restart as the Bulldogs found their groove.

They opened their account via a Brent Sherwin intercept try in the shadows of halftime before Sonny Bill Williams got an arm free to slam the ball over the tryline to get the Bulldogs back in the contest.

The Sharks regrouped and kicked away again as they capitalised on a pair of Bulldogs errors, Reece Williams getting the first after Ben Roberts was made to pay for a fumble on his own 20 metre line.

Down by eight points the Bulldogs decided to run the ball on the last, but it ended disastrously with Greg Bird picking up a loose ball before beating five players to set up Ben Pomeroy for a 24-10 lead after 57 minutes.

But the Bulldogs turned it up another gear to stay in the game, Sherwin coming to life as the Bulldogs kept the ball alive.

He touched the ball three times in one movement before eventually scoring his second off a Willie Tonga flick pass and when Jarrad Hickey showed too much strength to beat three defenders to score, it was back to a four point margin.

The game had started at a hectic pace but there was little action on the scoreboard with both sides showing great desperation with their goal line defence.

Phil Leuluai bucked that trend to go over from close range after 28 minutes and when interchange hooker Issac De Gois jumped out of dummy half and beat three players on a 70 metre run to the line, the Sharks looked like taking a 12-0 lead into the break.

But Sherwin had other ideas, the Bulldogs playmaker plucking an Adam Dykes pass out of the hands of Fraser Anderson before racing 85 metres to score just seconds before the halftime siren.

Source: NRL.COM  

LINE UP