Canterbury Bulldogs secured a surprisingly easy 10-27 victory today against North Queensland Cowboys at 1300SMILES Stadium, scoring three converted tries, four successful penalty goals from kicker Moses Mbye and a first-half field-goal from Kieran Foran.
It was the Bulldogs’ second victory of the season, while the Cowboys remain on two points, having only beaten the Sharks in a round-one game last month.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring with two early penalties from Moses Mbye and then, when a Foran kick ricocheted off Johnathan Thurston into the hands of the visitors, they transferred the ball quickly to Marcelo Montoya, who scored in the corner, with Mbye adding to his faultless goalkicking afternoon with a conversion from the touchline.
He soon added another penalty for a 12-0 lead and when Raymond Faitala-Mariner went over in the 34th minute things looked ominous for the Cowboys, with Foran making it 19-0 at the break with a late field-goal.
In the second half the Bulldogs pulled further ahead with a try for Adam Elliott, again converted, on 49 minutes.
The Cowboys finally managed to get on the scoreboard when Kyle Feldt touched down on 60 minutes, with Johnathan Thurston converting, but Mbye added another penalty before Ben Hampton added an unconverted late try for the Cowboys
Cowboys: 1 Lachlan Coote, 2 Kyle Feldt, 3 Justin O’Neill, 4 Ben Hampton, 5 Antonio Winterstein, 6 Michael Morgan, 7 Johnathan Thurston (c), 8 Matthew Scott (c), 9 Jake Granville, 10 Scott Bolton, 11 Gavin Cooper, 12 Coen Hess, 13 Jason Taumalolo; Interchange: 14 Te Maire Martin, 15 John Asiata, 16 Corey Jensen, 17 Ethan Lowe
Tries: Feldt, Hampton; Goal: Thurston
Bulldogs: 1 Moses Mbye, 2 Brett Morris, 3 Josh Morris, 4 Will Hopoate, 5 Marcelo Montoya, 6 Jeremy Marshall-King, 7 Kieran Foran, 8 Aaron Woods, 9 Michael Lichaa, 10 David Klemmer, 11 Josh Jackson (c), 12 Raymond Faitala-Mariner, 13 Adam Elliott; Interchange: 14 Asipeli Fine, 15 Danny Fualalo, 16 Greg Eastwood, 17 Kerrod Holland
Tries: Montoya, Faitala-Mariner, Elliott; Goals: Mbye 7; Field-Goal: Foran
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
