Match Details
Match Date	19th Apr, 2008
Opponent	St George Illawarra
Result	Win 30-18
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Andrew Ryan
Venue	Homebush (ANZ Stadium)
Crowd	14,767
Referee	Bernard Sutton

The Bulldogs survived a late second-half resurgence to record a 30-18 victory over St George-Illawarra in their round six NRL fixture at the Olympic stadium in Sydney on Saturday evening.

The home side stormed out of the blocks after half-time, adding two unanswered tries to their first-half swag of four which included an 80-metre run by Willie Tonga to score on the siren.

Sonny Bill Williams busted through a huge hole left by Rangi Chase to put interchange Danny Williams under the black dot five minutes into the second half.

Williams then had a hand in the Bulldogs' next points, shooting an unexpected grubber kick through the Dragons' line to put Tim Winitana over the line for his second try of the evening.

Dragons centre Matt Cooper was unlucky soon after in an assault on the try line, but video referee Paul Simpkins ruled that he crossed into touch before grounding the ball.

But within 10 minutes of the final siren, Cooper was on the receiving end of a behind-the-back pass and found his legs, racing away untouched for the visitors' second try.

It was a rare show of energy in the Dragons' attack, which was stuttered and error-riddled despite showing some post-break exuberance.

With just four minutes to go, the visitors looked more alive than they had all night, with Jarrod Saffy slipping out of tackle after tackle before off-loading to Simon Woolford for an easy try.

Bulldogs half-back and ex-Dragon Daniel Holdsworth said it was a memorable win.

"It's always good coming up against a former club and to get a win is even better," he told ABC Grandstand.

"Our first half set it up for us, [it was] a bit sloppy at the end but it's good to get a win."

Bulldogs backs Matt Utai and Winitana bagged two tries apiece, and replacement kicker Holdsworth held his own with three conversions from five attempts.

"[It was] a bit scrappy but we needed those two points," full-back Luke Patten, another former Dragon, said.

"It was a big improvement on last week (a 20-point loss to the Warriors), we talked about it, we just need to hold on to the footy and we've got points in us.

"We created enough opportunities to score points and that's how it turned out.

"It's always good to beat the Dragons."

Canterbury has now won seven straight encounters against the Dragons, who are languishing at the bottom of the NRL table just above the winless Rabbitohs.

The Bulldogs' line-up was significantly weakened with goal-kicker Hazem El Masri sidelined with a hamstring injury, Reni Maitua out due to rib injuries and Kane Cleal still suffering groin troubles.

Source: ABC 

LINE UP