Canterbury continued their march towards the minor premiership with an entertaining 22-14 win at ANZ Stadium in Round 23 last year, but not before they received a huge scare from a fired-up Broncos outfit.
With Justin Hodges back after recovering from a hamstring strain, Brisbane shot out of the blocks with two tries inside the opening six minutes – the first a barnstorming run from Ben Te’o as he tramped Ben Barba and the second a wonderful team try on the left edge that was finished off by Corey Norman.
A penalty goal to Peter Wallace made it 14-0 and Brisbane looked on their way to an impressive upset, but the Bulldogs began to claw their way back shortly before the break when Josh Jackson crashed over to close the half-time gap to eight.
It was a different Dogs side that returned from the sheds and in the 51st minute they were right back in the mix when Martin Taupau weaved his way across from close range.
Josh Reynolds took a chance soon after when he grubbered through on the first tackle and he was rewarded as the ball took a sharp turn to the right to evade the defence and allow Barba to dive on the scraps to give his side the lead.
Barba then added a second to seal victory with stunning solo run that saw him race past four defenders in a 20-metre dash.
Brisbane’s 45 missed tackles proved costly with the Bulldogs adding 17 offloads to run the visitors ragged late in the game.
Aiden Tolman was superb up front with 177 metres and 48 tackles while Barba added 12 tackle-breaks to his two tries.
Norman ran for 167 metres, added 277 kick metres and produced five tackle-breaks for the Broncos.
