Match Details
Match Date	27th Aug, 2011
Opponent	Newcastle
Result	Win 32-22
Coach	Jim Dymock
Captain	Andrew Ryan
Venue	Homebush (ANZ Stadium)
Crowd	10,257
Referee	Matt Cecchin Adam Devcich

A miracle try from Ben Barba has capped a remarkable come from behind 32-22 victory for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs over the Newcastle Knights in their beyondblue Cup clash at ANZ Stadium.

Barba's 75th minute try his second for the night saw the fullback plant the ball millimetres inside the dead ball line with his just one foot inside the field of play.

Sending it upstairs, video referee Sean Hampstead awarded the try to move the Bulldogs onto 30-22.

It completed a comeback that looked highly unlikely through a first half that could only be described as abysmal from the Bulldogs, which finished with them trailing by 22 points to six and looking even further away from victory.

After a half time rev up from coach Jim Dymock, the Bulldogs showed better signs after the resumption and they'd soon crack the Newcastle defence, with Steve Turner crossing wide out in the 45th minute to give the Bulldogs life at 22-10.

That sparked a resurgence that would end with the Bulldogs sealing a 10 point win.

Josh Reynolds was next to cross, stepping neatly off his left twice to carry two defenders over the line.

Turner's conversion narrowed the gap to a converted try at 22-16.

Some Trent Hodkinson magic gave Jamal Idris the Dogs fourth try on the hour, the halfback who only scraped into the side after recovering from a badly corked calf suffered against Manly on Sunday broke the line, dummying twice before sending a beautiful pass to Idris who scored in the corner.

Then Barba swooped on a bouncing ball to score his first try with ten minutes to play, putting the Dogs into the lead for the first time in the match at 26-22.

That laid the platform for the match-sealing Barba miracle, the try his 19th of the season, seeing him overtake Rod Silva for the most tries in a year by a Bulldogs fullback.

If the second half was a fairytale for the Bulldogs, the first read like the script of a horror movie as they completed just five of 13 sets, missed 24 tackles, and committed 10 errors over the course of the 40 minutes.

In response, Newcastle completed 18 of 21, missed just seven tackles, and made only three errors to head to the sheds leading handsomely at 22-6.

So behind the eight ball were the Bulldogs that by the end of the first half they had made just 347 metres off 41 runs, compared to the Knights 803 metres from 92.

The writing was on the wall early for the Dogs, with captain Kurt Gidley beating Ben Barba to a Jarrod Mullen bomb to touch down under the posts in the fifth minute.

In addition to being soundly beaten in every stat, the Bulldogs were penalised twice within kicking range inside the opening 20 minutes to allow Gidley to kick the Knights to a 10-nil lead.

The Bulldogs faithful were given some reason to hope approaching the half hour mark when Josh Morris twice wrong footed the defence to get the Dogs on the board with a try from 60 metres.

However any joy that came from being 10-6 down was extinguished miuntes later when Richie Fa'aoso shrugged off four defenders to touch down under the posts.

To make matters worse, the Knights were making it look all too easy when second rower Zane Tetavano ran in their third try three minutes out from half time, with Gidley making it five from five to send the visitors into the sheds ahead 22-6.

From the resumption the worm turned, the Bulldogs inflicting Newcastle's third straight defeat as well as keeping their own faint finals hopes alive.

The night came to an end with captain Andrew Ryan lifting the beyondblue Cup on the spot that he will lead out the Bulldogs for the final time in front of his home crowd in next Sunday's clash with the Canberra Raiders.

Source: AAP

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