ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 20 CANTERBURY BULLDOGS 28
CALLUM WALKER, Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Saturday
A CHRISTIAN TUIPULOTU hat-trick wasn’t enough for St George to kick their 2025 campaign off to a winning start as a Sitili Tupouniua-inspired Bulldogs side proved just too much for their opponents.
It was the visitors that struck first when Marcelo Montoya went over, but Tuipulotu grabbed his first of the afternoon moments later. With Matt Burton missing his conversion, Valentine Holmes sent the Dragons into a 6-4 lead.
But, that was as good as it got for the hosts with Blake Wilson and Connor Tracey crossing within four minutes of each other from the half-hour mark to shellshock the hosts. Burton made sure of the conversions to make it 16-6 at the break.
Things didn’t exactly improve after half-time for St George either, Tupouniua dotting down the first of his double before the rampaging second-rower made it two in six minutes to take the game away from the hosts.
Burton added the extras to both to send the Bulldogs 28-6 up, and, though Tuipulotu replied shortly after, two late efforts from Jacob Liddle and another from Tuipulotu weren’t enough to deny Canterbury an opening-round triumph.
DRAGONS: 1 Clint Gutherson, 2 Mathew Feagai, 3 Moses Suli, 4 Valentine Holmes, 5 Christian Tuipulotu, 6 Kyle Flanagan, 7 Lachlan Ilias, 8 Toby Couchman, 9 Damien Cook, 10 Emre Guler, 11 Luciano Leilua, 12 Jaydn Su’a, 13 Jack De Belin. Subs (all used): 14 Jacob Liddle, 15 Ryan Couchman, 16 Raymond Faitala-Mariner, 17 Hamish Stewart
Tries: Tuipulotu (17, 56, 73), Liddle (67); Goals: Holmes 2/4
BULLDOGS: 1 Connor Tracey, 2 Blake Wilson, 3 Bronson Xerri, 4 Stephen Crichton, 5 Marcelo Montoya, 6 Matt Burton, 7 Toby Sexton, 8 Max King, 9 Reed Mahoney, 21 Daniel Suluka-Fifita, 11 Viliame Kikau, 12 Jacob Preston, 17 Jaeman Salmon. Subs (all used): 13 Kurt Mann, 14 Bailey Hayward, 15 Sitili Tupouniua, 16 Harry Hayes
Tries: Montoya (14), Wilson (31), Tracey (35), Tupouniua (46, 52); Goals: Burton 4/5
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 6-4, 6-10, 6-16; 6-22, 6-28, 10-28, 16-28, 20-28
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Dragons: Valentine Holmes; Bulldogs: Sitili Tupouniua
Penalty count: 6-3; Half-time: 6-16; Referee: Todd Smith; Attendance: 16,211
