32 SPORT MONDAY MARCH 9 2015 Mozzies, Goannas Panthers stop Dogs in show of

By IAN McCULLOUGH NT pride McGregor doesn’t buy Storm’s demise PANTHERS 24 A NERVOUS Penrith have By BRIAN ANDERSON held off a stunning late rally PAUL McGregor believes re- pack after being a dominant gor is also expecting the Storm BULLDOGS from Canterbury to seal a ports of Melbourne’s death as power for the past decade. to spring out of the blocks, 18 THE NT men’s and women’s 24-18 win yesterday and open an NRL force have been greatly However, St George Illawar- with Melbourne having won PENRITH rugby teams proved they were their 2015 NRL campaign with exaggerated and is wary of the ra coach McGregor says there’s their last 10 opening round Tries: D Watene-Zelezniak 2, G capable of mixing it with Aus- a nail-biting victory. “Big Three” proving his point in no chance of the Dragons tak- matches. Jennings J Segeyaro tralia’s best with competitive Goals: J Soward 4 Ivan Cleary’s side were on their NRL season opener. ing the Storm lightly when they The Dragons have this week efforts in Saturday’s National course for a dominant victory With club greats Cooper meet at tonight. been forced to deal with the CANTERBURY 7s in Sydney. Tries: T Browne, B Morris, C Rona after racing out to a 24-0 lead Cronk, and The Storm have been a distraction of ’s Goals: T Hodkinson 3 In the first match, the Mos- only for the Bulldogs to score , all 31, moving to- bogey side for St George Illa- signing with Penrith for 2016, Crowd: 18,814 at Pepper Stadium quitoes went down to NSW 18 unanswered points in the ward the twilight of their ca- warra since Melbourne’s incep- and also have to plug the con- Referees: B Cummins, G Reynolds Blue 29-0 before recording a final 10 minutes at Pepper Sta- reers and the loss of Ryan tion in 1998, with the Dragons siderable hole left by the de- powerful 33-12 win over West- dium. Hoffman, many have tipped winning just eight of 29 clashes parture of to the ern . In a game played in swelter- the Storm to slide back to the between the two sides. McGre- Bulldogs. The Bulldogs had struggled The Mozzies were aggress- ing conditions, it was the Pan- to get a foothold on the game ive at the ruck and in defence thers’ young guns who stole throughout and bench forward with Bobby Nurse and Drew the show with local juniors nudging the mid-30s at kick- Jennings, who is the youn- the corner after classy back- Tim Browne’s try off a James Tobin crossing for tries early. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Ge- off and it was the hosts who ger brother of NSW and Aus- rower Cartwright kept three Graham pass seemed nothing Both were converted by Nate orge Jennings and Bryce Cart- seemed more comfortable in tralian centre Michael Bulldogs players at bay to off- more than a consolation. Lamb for a 14-0 lead. wright playing starring roles. the conditions as their mobile Jennings, then latched on to a load to the hooker. But quickfire four-pointers WA struck back with two Watene-Zelezniak and Jen- forwards dominated the Bull- cut-out pass from Soward 10 Roared on by a big crowd from Rona and Brett Morris tries of their own to trail 14-12 nings both crossed in the first dogs’ bigger pack. minutes before the break for a the Panthers continued to set up a grandstand finish as at the break. half to give their side a 14-0 Kiwi winger Watene-Zelez- try on his NRL debut. press in attack and Watene- the Bulldogs tried to take the The Mosquitoes lifted in- lead at the break with Jamie niak pounced in the 12th min- The hosts continued to Zelezniak doubled his tally game to golden point. tensity and dominated the sec- Soward booting home two ute after good link-up work dominate after the restart with when he hauled in a Soward However, the Panthers’ de- ond half with tries to sideline kicks and a penalty. between Moylan and Dean James Segeyaro outpacing the bomb and muscled his way fence held firm on back-to- Shepherd, Satala and Salaa. The mercury pitchside was Whare to open the scoring. Bulldogs defence to score in past Curtis Rona. back sets. In their final pool match, Queensland White scored two early tries for a 14-0 lead. When the Mozzies finally got some possession they made it SHARKS count with three converted 20 tries for a 21-14 half-time lead. RAIDERS The Queenslanders starved 24 the Mozzies of ball in the sec- ond half and scored four un- Tries: J Wighton 2, J Rapana, S answered tries to win 36-21. Waqa The Mosquitoes played all Goals: J Croker 4 games as a well-structured CRONULLA unit. Bobby Nurse and Drew Tries: S Feki, R Leutele, A Tupou Tobin were outstanding in Goals: M Gordon 4 each of the matches. Crowd: 11,096 at Remondis Stadium The Goannas also had to Referees: A Shortall, G Morris contend with the tournament favourites in their first game. NSW Blue’s intensity was a steep learning curve for the NT with the home side recording a 36-0 victory. Similarly to the men, it was the second match in which the women stood up and were counted when they defeated the National Indigen- ous side 14-10 after leading 14-0 at half time. Tries were scored by Ellie Hardwick and Sophie Armi- stead while former Wallaroo Emily Robson who was one of three players drafted into the side to cover late withdrawals landed both conversions. The Goannas then took on Queensland White and were unlucky to concede a try on the last play of the first half to trail by seven. Bojana Mali scored on the end of some positive attacking play by the Goannas to trail by two and had a chance to win with strong multiple phase play in the dying seconds of the match. scores a try for Canberra last night despite the presence of Cronulla defenders and at Remondis Stadium Picture: RENEE McKAY Claire Rowat was the gen- eral in each of the matches. Sharks lack bite at home against unfancied Raiders

By NICK WALSHAW losing 24-20 to a Canberra out- after Anthony Milford has Surprisingly, despite a new Cronulla were their own worst Round 5 (NT times) fit many have tipped for the arrived fairly quickly. “zero tolerance” ruling against enemies. Friday: Hurricanes v Blues in Palmerston North (4.05pm), threw passes for wooden spoon, key signing After being moved from punches, Feki was also binned Like when , Force v Rebels in Perth two tries. And for Cronulla, Barba also looked lengths from five-eighth, centre and for his push – which essentially attacking the tryline, lost the (8.30pm) that’s about where the high- the “buy of the year” Shire fans last year, Orange product Jack negated the short right thrown ball on the second tackle. Or Saturday: Crusaders v Lions in lights end. Truly. so desperately desire. Wighton produced a starring by Wighton. Michael Gordon twice strug- Christchurch (1pm), Highlanders Because while the ASADA Sure, the Sharks never let role in the No. 1 jersey. And, Elsewhere, the Country gling beneath bombs. v Waratahs in Dunedin (4.05pm), Reds v in scandal is now behind them – the difference get to more than OK, it wasn’t without drama. Origin representative scored And how about Barba fail- Brisabne (6.10pm), Stormers v and only the most inquisitive eight. Yet playing before a re- The young Raider being two tries, threw the last pass ing to find touch with a penalty Chiefs in Cape Town (10.30pm) of us are still wondering from spectable crowd, they never sent to the sin bin in the second for a third, and most likely kick for touch, then less than Sunday: Cheetahs v Sharks in where the drugs came – the did anywhere near enough to half when, after a bit of push drove the team bus back down 10 minutes later, kicking out Bloemfontein (12.35am) Sharkies are still a long way say they deserved the game, and shove with Sharks winger the highway to Canberra. on the full when pressured on Bye: Bulls from being “back”. Apart from either. For the Raiders, life Sosaia Feki, he let one go. But for much of the game the fifth tackle.

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