CANTERBURY BULLDOGS 60 SYDNEY ROOSTERS 14

IT WAS the day Josh Morris crossed for four tries, emerging star Ben Barba grabbed a hat-trick and the Sydney Roosters were dismissed as “embarrassing” after missing 53 tackles.

Most importantly, it was the day Canterbury-Bankstown kickstarted their spluttering 2010 campaign.

After successive losses, Bulldog optimists thought their side could beat the undefeated Roosters. But no one anticipated a 60-14 scoreline.

The Bulldogs’ biggest win over their long-time rivals stunned them as much as it did the Roosters, who were truly appalling.

The Canterbury juggernaut was on a roll yesterday and everything the Roosters tried to stop it failed miserably.

The try avalanche started in the 10th minute and didn’t stop until another 11 had been racked up.

Thankfully for the Roosters, Canterbury goalkicker Bryson Goodwin landed just six conversions.

Morris scored in the 10th, 21st, 30th and 61st minutes to bring his try tally to 12 in his past six games at ANZ Stadium.

Barba came off the bench to show his stunning zip, while big centre Jamal Idris was powerful out wide.

The more the Roosters tried to fight from their rut, the worse things became. The Bulldogs are back. And how.

“It was a nice win after a couple of losses,” Canterbury coach Kevin Moore said. “There was a little pressure externally but I wasn’t concerned about how we were going.

“It was nice to get our first win on the board, the way we played and the attitude we showed.

“It shows there is a fair bit of spirit in the place. We didn’t lose any faith.

“But it’s on again next week and we have to bring that same determination and attitude.

“There are still parts of our game we need to improve.”

After consecutive wins to start the season, the Roosters had their confidence shattered yesterday in a Bulldogs ambush. The match was as good as over when Canterbury led 16-0 after 21 minutes.

The Roosters, who lost centre Phil Graham and prop Jason Ryles before the game, scored twice to start the second half but the mini comeback ended when Idris surged over for his second try 10 minutes into the second half.

Showing the ruthlessness that took them to within one game of last year’s grand final, Canterbury scored three more tries in the final 15 minutes.

“It has been well documented that we haven’t played well in the past two weeks,” said Dogs winger Steve Turner, who scored two tries.

“We knew we had to do the things that work for us. Hopefully this has kickstarted our season. We have to cherish this win.”

Idris said he had heard criticism surrounding his early-season form.

“Of course you hear it,” he said. “That is people’s opinion. You have to show them differently. There is a lot more in me.”

The Roosters’ energy levels were low, their enthusiasm even lower.

“There are the obvious things – disappointment, embarrassment,” Roosters coach Brian Smith said.

“We didn’t persevere and stick at it longer. It was disappointing.

“But I think we will respond well. As glum as today is, I have seen teams turn things around.”

Each time Dragons winger Brett Morris scores, brother Josh fires back.

They are try-scoring freaks, with Josh notching 38 in his past 34 games.

Asked about Josh, Moore said: “Outstanding. He stood up and was really hungry. His brother put the challenge to him and he responded.”

Perhaps playing three straight Sundays in hot conditions made the Roosters weary.

“They probably looked tired at stages,” Canterbury skipper Andrew Ryan said.

Smith said he had tried to tell the media the Roosters were not world-beaters – but the media didn’t listen.

We will after yesterday.

BULLDOGS 60 (J Morris 4 B Barba 3 J Idris 2 S Turner 2 A Ryan tries B Goodwin 6 goals) bt SYDNEY ROOSTERS 14 (B Anasta B Jones M Pearce tries T Carney goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Jason Robinson, Bernard Sutton. Crowd: 19,738.

Try time…Dean Young celebrates scoring for the Dragons against the Bulldogs. Picture: Mark Evans Source: The Daily Telegraph

• Dragons 26 Bulldogs 6

THE Bulldogs supposedly had a score to settle last night. They were supposedly pumped to right the wrongs of their previous clash against St George Illawarra, which ended in high drama after video referee Steve Clark wrongly denied them a last-minute match-winner.

But from the opening minutes of last night’s return bout it was clear there would be no painful repeat.

The Bulldogs started like they were tethered to a telegraph pole, spent the rest of the evening chasing their tail, and made no headway on the scoreboard.

A 16-0 lead in as many minutes ensured the Dragons would remain unbeaten – and the Bulldogs winless.

Two of their opening strikes went to speedster Brett Morris, who sent bookmakers into the foetal position after notching his hat-trick with two minutes remaining, but the real heroes for the hosts were their hands.

In a replica of last week’s near-immaculate completion rate, the Dragons again controlled possession superbly and had forced the ball over the opposition’s try-line three times before they finally fumbled in the 21st minute.

Appearing to lack the hunger that inspired last year’s fairytale ride from cellar to Cinderella, the Bulldogs never recovered.

To make matters worse, Belmore now has a bona-fide bookends crisis to contend with after Michael Hodgson and Mickey Paea both suffered medial knee tears, while Ben Hannant has to contend with homesickness.

Contemplating his first back-to-back losses since taking over last year, Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore praised his team’s effort but felt their poor start – and a 9-3 penalty count in favour of the hosts – cruelled any chance of a contest.

“We got off to a poor start and they got off to a flyer,” he surmised. “Getting to 16-0 after 17 minutes … that hurt. In the last 65 minutes we created a lot of opportunities but our execution is a bit off. You have to be at your best, particularly against one of the best teams in the competition.”

And perhaps the smartest. While Dragons coach Wayne Bennett refused to confirm it, the Dragons looked to Morris at every opportunity. His pace regularly made a mess of Bulldogs opposites Jamal Idris and Steve Turner, whom Moore admitted were exposed.

“Our right-hand-side defence got found out a couple of times – they were just poor reads,” Moore said.

“They were poor reads for certainly Brett’s first try, his last try … probably his middle try as well.”

It was the second that really emphasised Canterbury’s woes, with Dragons prop Matt Prior skirting former NSW Origin winger Turner from a scrum deep in St George Illawarra territory.

He duly found Morris, who dashed between Bryson Goodwin and Luke Patten to dash the Bulldogs hopes.

As they did six nights earlier, Canterbury fought to the end but Brett Kimmorley’s kicking game lacked the variety to penetrate such well-drilled defence.

Kimmorley constantly kicked for the towering Idris, but the veteran’s aim was locked a few valuable metres short and Canterbury did not trouble the scorer until livewire utility Ben Barba jinked over with 26 minutes remaining.

Barba’s try made the score 18-6, and Moore thought his side might have been a chance if not for some appalling decisions from the referees.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 26 (B Morris 3 N Emmett D Young tries J Soward 3 goals) bt BULLDOGS 6 (B Barba try B Goodwin goal) at WIN Stadium. Referee: Tony Archer, Matt Cecchin. Crowd: 16,177.

Dragons 18 Eels 12 – Cheering…the Dragons’ Jeremy Smith celebrates scoring against the Eels. Picture: Brett Costello Source: The Daily Telegraph

THE only difference was the days are getting shorter.

But if the calendar didn’t show the month of March, 18,293 enthralled people at Parramatta Stadium last night might have believed they were watching a brand of football usually reserved for September.

In one of the highest-quality season openers in memory, St George Illawarra and Parramatta turned on a sparkling contest every bit worthy of a finals thriller that later prompted victorious Dragons coach Wayne Bennett to declare: “There’s no more round ones.”

And there also shouldn’t be a 94 per cent completion rate the Dragons finished with to defy injury woes and record a deserved 18-12 victory over the premiership favourites.

Complementing a wonderful kicking game from Jamie Soward that also saw the pivot land three second-half penalty goals to keep his side in command, the visitors completed a stunning 34 of 36 sets to suffocate their opponents.

But the brave Dragons needed to draw on every once of discipline to grab just their third round-one win in the past 13 years.

Already missing topline centres Matt Cooper (hamstring) and Peni Tagive (knee), Bennett had to draft prop Matt Prior into the three-quarter line and also rely on Ben Hornby – who hadn’t downed a solid meal in 36 hours thanks to an infected wisdom tooth – to lead the troops.

After getting the jump on the hosts through two unanswered tries inside 25 minutes, St George Illawarra also lost their best player in the opening exchanges – creative hooker Nathan Fien – to a broken ankle that will put him on ice for up to three months.

“I was most happy with the flexibility of the players to handle a lot of positions,” Bennett said. “We lost Nathan Fien, Ben (Hornby) was in doubt for most of the week and we’ve got three centres injures.

“We’re pretty depleted in a few positions. It was a good standard of game. There’s no round ones – it’s like we never left the last season.”

Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson agreed with Bennett about the incredible quality on show, but was left to lament the only spot of rust on an otherwise spotless contest – his team’s kicking game.

Whereas Soward constantly found space and sidelines to blunt the potency of Eels superstar Jarryd Hayne on kick return, Parramatta’s halves fell well short of generating anywhere near the same pressure.

But Anderson was still proud of his team’s effort to keep the scoreboard close in the face of their opponent’s near-perfect handling and execution with the football.

“We’ve been extremely courageous,” Anderson said. “I don’t think the Dragons had to run the ball off their line all night and they only made one mistake.

“I’ve never seen anything like that (in round one), where there’s not been any give and take.”

Eels skipper Nathan Cayless – whose front-row partner Shane Shackleton could miss the season with a torn hamstring – added: “They applied pressure by not giving us any field position and not making any mistakes.

“It was a quality game, very fast. It’s going to be a good year of footy.”

Fien’s 35th-minute injury stunted the Dragons’ ambush, and they were unable to cross Parramatta’s line for the rest of the evening following early strikes from Hornby and forward Jeremy Smith.

Parramatta replied with a try to winger Eric Grothe before halftime, but referee Tony Archer’s whistle and Soward’s metronomic boot kept the locals restless.

The pivot kicked two straight penalties in the 51st and 59th minute to take St George Ilawarra’s lead to 16-6, before Luke Burt crossed to transform the groans into cheers.

But Soward had the final say, slotting another goal five minutes from the siren to hand the 2009 minor premiers some vengeance for last year’s finals defeat to the blue and golds.

Former Dragon Justin Poore, who traded jerseys over the summer, said his old team were simply too clinical to stop.

“I expected it, coming up against my old mates,” Poore said.

“They’re are a Wayne Bennett-coached side and they are always hard to beat. They are so well drilled and just don’t give you anything.”

Poore cost the Eels an early penalty when he gave his former front-row partner Michael Weyman a facial, but the Dragons’ prop had the last laugh.

The Eels lost centre Joel Reddy in the warm-up to a hamstring injury, with Krisnan Inu taking his place with a strong defensive game.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 18 (B Hornby J Smith tries J Soward 5 goals) bt PARRAMATTA 12 (L Burt E Grothe tries L Burt 2 goals) at Parramatta Stadium. Referee: Tony Archer, Gavin Badger. Crowd:  18,293.

Will retain goalkicking duties…Michael Ennis. Picture: Gregg Porteous Source: The Daily Telegraph

BULLDOGS coach Kevin Moore will persist with Michael Ennis as the club’s first-choice goalkicker – and not bring Brett Kimmorley out of goal-kicking retirement – despite the hooker failing to land one two-pointer on Saturday night.

Just how much former club legend Hazem El Masri and his golden boot will be missed this year hit home when the Dogs crashed to a shock opening-round loss against Newcastle by two goals.

Ennis has kicked over 100 goals in his career but missed all four attempts on Saturday and has the pressure of replacing the greatest sharpshooter of all time.

Kimmorley has kicked 195 career goals while new recruit Steve Turner is no slouch with the boot.

But Moore is more than happy to stick with Ennis and said there was no point reminiscing about El Masri. He even quipped at the post-match press conference that if Ennis had slotted all four goals, fans would be asking, ‘Hazem who?”‘

“Michael was always going to be our first choice because he’s more experienced than anybody else at the club,” Moore said.

“He’s kicked over 100 goals. I don’t want to make any knee-jerk reactions.

“I also thought they were pretty hard kicks.

“I think the main reason we lost is because [from] 1-17 they individually competed better than us.”

CANTERBURY have named Bryson Goodwin for Saturday’s NRL opening round clash with Newcastle, despite the winger still wearing a protective moon boot.

Goodwin has a toe injury but Bulldogs medical staff are confident the New Zealand international, who scored 20 tries in a breakthrough 2009 season, will be able to take his place at ANZ Stadium.

“He’s still in some doubt, he didn’t run today, he’ll train with the team on Wednesday so, dependent on how he gets through that session, we’ll decide whether he plays or not,” coach Kevin Moore said today.

Bulldogs team:

Luke Patten, Steve Turner, Josh Morris, Jamal Idris, Bryson Goodwin, Ben Roberts, Brett Kimmorley, Ben Hannant, Michael Ennis, Michael Hodgson, Yileen Gordon, Andrew Ryan, David Stagg.

Interchange: Mickey Paea, Gary Warburton, Jarrad Hickey, Ben Barba

Goodwin has a toe injury but Bulldogs medical staff are confident the New Zealand international, who scored 20 tries in a breakthrough 2009 season, will be able to take his place at ANZ Stadium.

“He’s still in some doubt, he didn’t run today, he’ll train with the team on Wednesday so, dependent on how he gets through that session, we’ll decide whether he plays or not,” coach Kevin Moore said on Monday.

“We’ve got a couple of blokes on standby in Heka Nanai and Junior Tia Kilifi so we’ll make that decision later in the week.”

Former Melbourne winger Steve Turner and ex-St George Illawarra forward Mickey Paea will debut for the Bulldogs.

Yileen Gordon has been rewarded with a starting spot in the second row, while Ben Barba earns the bench utility spot.

As well as competition points, the Bulldogs and Knights will compete for the beyondblue Cup for the first time as they aim to raise awareness of depression, anxiety and related drug and alcohol problems.