Mounties five-eighth Brad Abbey came back to haunt his old club after inspiring his team to a 34-22 win over Canterbury-Bankstown in the Leagues Clubs Australia Ron Massey Cup at St Marys Leagues Stadium today.
Abbey, who played for the Bulldogs in both the NRL and The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup, set up two tries and scored one himself to have a defining hand in three of the six four-pointers for his side.
For the Bulldogs halfback Cody Fuz did as much as he could with a personal points tally of 10 from a try and three goals in the Round Five match.
It was all the Bulldogs for two-thirds of the match.
Three slick tries in the first 40 minutes gave Canterbury-Bankstown a 16-6 lead at halftime.
They were up 22-10 in the 49th minute off Fuz’s try but then the Mounties sparked into action to pile on 24 unanswered points.
The Bulldogs were unable to capitalise on an early 4-0 penalty count in their favour as they camped themselves on the Mounties try line for three sets.
But when another opportunity came their way in the 16th minute – a wayward grubber kick – winger Blake Forder didn’t waste any time. He swooped on the ball and carried it 90 metres untouched down the right flank to plant it under the posts.
The Bulldogs then scored twice in the final six minutes before half-time.
A nice shift left through fullback Juelz Baker allowed centre Trentham Petersen an easy passage.
The third try came when prop Bayley Cox made a bust up the middle. The next play hooker Peni Tagituimua delivered a short pass to his other prop Isaac Matalavea-Booth on the boil for a crash-over try.
Mounties put up pretty good resistance for most of the opening half and some nice support play in the 24th minute had second-rower Kenny Soumpholphakdy score in the right corner after Abbey swivelled in the tackle to find him.
It was Mounties again taking the first points in the second half after a bust from centre Abiarthur Toi Tuilaepa led to his winger Jahoiyakim Afoa scoring in the right corner on the next play (16-10).
Fuz scored a fine individual try dashing 15 metres and throwing two dummies to extend the Bulldogs lead to 22-10.
But the Mounties wouldn’t go away. Two tries within four minutes and two conversions from Roman Ioelu (pictured above) levelled things up at 22-all.
After setting up a try, Abbey scored one himself in the 55th minute. And then dummy-half Joseph Tramontana darted over near the left upright.
Mounties took the lead outright 28-22 off an Abbey high corner kick, which winger Noel Aukafolau gratefully accepted.
Matalavea-Booth tried another barge-over try near the uprights in the 76th minute, which most likely would have levelled scores again, but lost possession when he was over the line.
Mounties then sealed the deal when fullback Kieran Wyld scooped the ball up from dummy-half and found a hole in the sliding Bulldogs defence, with just 46 seconds left.
