RESULTS:
SAINTS 26
(Nathan Blacklock 3, Mark
Gasnier , Amos Roberts tries. Mark Riddell 2/4, Wayne Bartrim 1/2 goals)
CANTERBURY 14
(Willie Talau , Luke Patten
tries. Hazem El Masri 3/3 goals)
Crowd: 15,173
Penalties: Canterbury 7-5
Scrums: Canterbury 8-5
Possession: Saints 52%
Completion rates: Saints 64% - C'Bury 70%
Handling errors: Saints 15 - C'Bury 10
Line breaks: Saints 10 - C'Bury 2
Offloads: Saints 23 - C'Bury 21
Missed tackles: Saints 15 - C'Bury 45
MATCH
REPORT:
SUMMARY
ROUND 13:
SAINTS 26 CRUSH CANTERBURY 14
TINGHA
SCORES HAT TRICK !!!
Sydney Showground (Homebush), 20 May 2001: St
George Illawarra have scored a timely victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs
to the tune of 26-14.
Saints were the dominant team throughout with the Dragons
forwards finding easy yards up the middle of the ruck for much of the match.
Star of the match was Nathan Blacklock who posted a hat
trick of tries to bring his 2001 tally to 12. In 93 games, Tingha has a
strike rate of 82 tries which must make him one of Rugby League's all time
great try scorers.
Sporting their alternative strip, the Dragons had stand
outs all over the park and if a few more passes had of stuck, it could
have been a much bigger thrashing.
BY
THE CLOCK:
9 min: Try Gasnier down left flank. After some
heavy defensive work in the forwards, the Dragons have softened up the
Bulldogs pack early on and look to their backline in attack. Gasnier is
put into a gap by Barrett and despite being ankle tapped, manages to scramble
across to score. Conversion attempt from Riddell hits the uprights. Saints
4-0
11 min: Hart puts in a big defensive effort knocking
his opposites back on their heels with 4 tackles in a row.
20 min: Try Amos Roberts. C'Bury are knocked senseless
in a ruthless passage of play which featured some major hit ups from Saints'
forwards, in particular Lance Thompson. Conversion attempt from Riddell
hits uprights again and he has now hit the sticks with his last 3 shots
(including last week). Saints 8-0
23 min: Try Blacklock. A Lance Thompson bust finds
Roberts in support who sends the ball to Blacklock. Tingha scores his first
try of the day and his 10th in 2001. Conversion Riddell, spot on! Saints
14-0
24 min: Saints certain to score again but Gasnier
holds dummies having an unmarked Blacklock on his inside.
30 min: Try Talau. C'Bury get their first try
with Talau running through a gap. Conversion El Masri Saints 14-6
39 min: Penalty goal El Masri. Saints 14-8
HALF TIME (14-8: Saints 3 tries to 1)
60 min: Still no further score 20 minutes into
the 2nd half and it looks to be evens. Anyone's game.
63 min: Try Blacklock who runs through gap. ref
may have been in Patten's way but replay shows the C'Bury fullback trying
to milk an obstruction. Saints 22-8
65 min: Massive run from dummy half from Riddell
of some 40 or 50 metres.
70 min: Try Blacklock - a hat trick for the afternoon
and Tinga's 12th try of the year which takes him to top of the try scoring
ladder...still waiting for NSW selection. Conversion from Bartrim misses.
Saints
26-8
76 min: Try Patten - a late consolation try to
the Bulldogs. Conversion El Masri. Saints 26-14
80 min: Full time siren and Saints have bashed
the Bulldogs out of the contest with some heavy contact footy which never
let up. The loss for the Bulldogs ends their 5 game winning streak.
And the Amos vs Luke battle? Well lets just say that
Luke wasn't able to back up his mid week comments about seeking revenge
on his old team. Amos on the other hand was magnificent in a team of stars.
It was a powerful display from the Dragons who now move
into 9th position on the ladder, just one point out of the eight.
FULL TIME: Saints 26-14 (5 tries to 2)
SOTV
BEST PLAYERS:
Nathan Blacklock (3pts) Backed up and scored a
hat trick. Seemed to be everywhere and didn't mind mixing it with the forwards.
Jason Ryles (2pts) Terrified the Bulldogs pack
all afternoon with some powerful hit ups and tackling.
Trent Barrett (1pt) Ran the show. Made sure that
C'Bury had no say in the proceedings.
Not far away: Willie Peters, Lance Thompson, Amos
Roberts, Mark Riddell, Colin Ward, Andrew Hart. Not a bad player in the
Dragons team and anyone of them could have ended up in the top 3.
THIS
WEEKS SOUND FILES:
NATHAN
BLACKLOCK, MAN OF THE MATCH
(HINT:
you can also download sound files by right clicking on pic and use 'save
link' or 'save target' option, then save WAV file to desktop or folder
of choice)
  WAV
(970 Kb) Click on the pic to hear Nathan
Blacklock, TVs man of the match talking after the game
For
full list of all the year's sound files - click here
MATCH
& CROWD PICS:
Lance Thompson in the clear
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Tingha gets try #1
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Amos roberts has no trouble running clear
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Colin Ward, Wise Kativerata
and Andrew Hart look on
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Andrew Hart and another hit up
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Craig Stapleton
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Heavy defence - this time from the backs
|
Canterbury's Steven Hughes is slammed down and knocked
out by the unrelenting defence
|
Fantastic run from Mark Riddell
|
Barto and Wardy enjoying the proceedings
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Tingha races away for try #2
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Acknowledging someone in the crowd
|
|
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Tingha gets try #3
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1-2-3 Tingha gets a HAT TRICK!
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With seconds to go and the match won, Jamie Fitzgerlad
sees the funny side of a clumsy knock on
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REF
REPORT:
Paul Simpkins made a number of fundamental or shall we
say, 'human' errors with missed knock ons and forward passes. We were baffled
when he called to Mark Gasnier that he was offside and still allowed the
Dragon's centre to complete a tackle. Even more baffling was a decision
to allow the Canterbury centre, Steven Hughes to play the ball after he
clearly lost it following a a heavy tackle which saw him being knocked
out. It was understandable why play was stopped but it should have been
a Saints scrum. We can only assume that the ref felt sorry for Hughes.
However, credit must be given for allowing the players
to play. It was a tough but fair match thanks to the ref's overall control.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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