The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have produced the perfect bounce back in the Toyota Cup, defeating the Parramatta Eels 58 points to 22 at ANZ Stadium.
Coming into the match still stinging from their 28-all draw with lowly Manly seven days earlier, the Bulldogs started slowly before kicking into gear with a vengeance, running in ten tries including six in the second half to cruise to victory.
In return the Eels score twice in each half, but never fully challenged outside the opening ten minutes of play.
That opening couldn’t have been in greater contrast to the rest of the match for the Dogs, who let the Eels skip away to a 12 nil lead inside even time.
But after tries to Rodney Moefaauo and Semi Radradra the Bulldogs pulled a similar trick, with Paul Carter scoring in the 12th minute and John Sila in the 15th seeing things level at 12-all.
From there both teams worked into the grind, with one of few highlights for the rest of the half coming when David Klemmer was sin binned for dissent 15 minutes from the break.
But being a man down was far from a hindrance for the visitors, who hit the lead 10 minutes out from half time through a burrowing try from dummy half by Carter.
Freddie Robinson made it three from three with the boot to put the Dogs out to an 18-12 lead.
By the time Klemmer re-emerged the Dogs had gone in again, this time it was Tupou Sopoaga crossing from dummy half to give his side a 24-12 half time lead.
It set a tone for the rest of the match, which saw the Dogs set up camp in the Eels half after the resumption.
Tries wouldn’t take long to come, with the first going the way of Ed Murphy who hit a beautiful cut out from Gerard McCallum to score untouched five minutes after the resumption.
Then interchange giant David Minute got in on the action, with Robinson keeping his perfect record in tact to make it 36-12 the Dogs way.
A four pointer to Henry Ah Sam, followed by doubles to Sila and Minute, took the Dogs out past the half century at 52-18 by the time the match was 70 minutes gone.
In that time Moefaauo also picked up a double to make it respectable for the Eels.
The Dogs final four pointer was indicative of their performance, with prop Michael Ioapo carrying four defenders with him as he touched down under the posts.
It saw Robinson, who added the extras from in front, finish with nine goals from 10 attempts for the match.
The final final say however went the way of the Eels, with Radradra also bagging a double when he touched down off a grubber kick thirty seconds from time for a final score of 58-22.
TOYOTA CUP
Bulldogs 58: Paul Carter 2, John Sila 2, David Minute 2, Tupou Sopoaga, Ed Murphy, Henry Ah Sam, Michael Ioapo tries; Freddie Robinson 9 goals from 10 attempts
Parramatta 22: Rodney Moefaauo 2, Semi Radradra 2 tries; Mitchell Brasington 3 goals from 4 attempts
At ANZ Stadium
