Match Details
Match Date	12th Apr, 2013
Opponent	Sydney Roosters
Result	Loss 0-38
Coach	Des Hasler
Captain	Michael Ennis
Venue	Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz Stadium)
Crowd	22,552
Referee	Ben Cummins Gavin Morris

Time to move on? That might be a little difficult now. If possible, Bulldogs supporters will only feel much worse about Sonny Bill Williams’ departure five years ago. Look what you’ve been missing all this time.

Two tries, one assist, and one of the standout performances. All in front of many of the fans who had been waiting five long years to let him know how they feel. Williams has tried to appease them with words but his performance did anything but. He was immense, and the Bulldogs, speaking through gritted teeth, would admit that.

Worse still, they would know that Williams and his Roosters had inflicted another significant wound. The Bulldogs have now slumped to five losses from six matches, and will do well to recover to repeat last year’s efforts. It was the Roosters’ biggest win over the Bulldogs since 1935, the year Canterbury entered the competition.

For a match five years in the making, Williams made everyone wait. It took him nine minutes to touch the football for the first time. But when he did, he showed what the Bulldogs have missed all this time.

A sublime ball to winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck gave the Roosters first blood. Williams was in the right place at the right time; he came up with his assist right in front of many of the Bulldogs’ supporters.

The first half was occasionally torrid. Lock Boyd Cordner gave the Roosters second blood when his head was split open. He battled on before being replaced just before the half-hour mark. Roosters halfback Mitchell Pearce roughed up his opposite – Trent Hodkinson, who had replaced Kris Keating in the line-up – with an illegal shoulder charge.

Points were hard to come by, and so were other touches by Williams.

Five-eighth James Maloney extended the lead with a 38thminute penalty, adding to the frustration of Bulldogs supporters but at least not ending their hopes entirely.

Not long into the second half, the Roosters supporters got what they had been waiting for, and what the Bulldogs fans would have been dreading. Williams received the ball from Pearce, and with winger Mitch Brown darting in-field, the second rower had a rather simple canter into the right corner. He slapped the hand of a Roosters supporter on the fence as his try slapped the faces of the Bulldogs Army watching on from the other end of the stadium.

Four minutes later, Bulldogs second-rower Tony Williams had a chance to hit back, but he lost possession centimetres before the try line. Two minutes later, Maloney cut through the Bulldogs’ defensive line and sent utility Daniel Mortimer over.

But Sonny Bill wasn’t finished. After 62 minutes, Pearce again provided the assist for the forward, who barged over. Maloney capped off his own outstanding performance with a try, before centre Michael Jennings completed the rout three minutes later.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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