Pull off a shock upset against Knights and leave bottom
Canterbury pulled off their second upset in as many games to shock Newcastle 20-14 at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night.
Scoring two converted tries in a four-minute stretch while Knights prop James Gavet was in the sin-bin for a late tackle on Chris Smith, the Bulldogs clawed back an 8-0 deficit to consolidate their 14-12 victory over the Sharks a fortnight ago and put a dent in Newcastle’s play-off campaign.
Fijian international Brandon Wakeham sparked the Bulldogs with two pieces of brilliance in the 67th and 71st minutes, creating tries for Corey Harawira-Naera and Reimis Smith.
Despite being on the back foot early on, Canterbury recovered and counter-attacked by spreading the ball to the edges with quick passes and changes of direction.
Bulldogs centre Marcelo Montoya appeared certain to score when he steamed on to a Jack Cogger pass in the 22nd minute but initially grounded the ball on Jamie Buhrer’s leg then was held up.
While Gavet was off the field, Wakeham delivered a short ball for Harawira-Naera to crawl over and score in the 67th minute, then four minutes later planted a pin-point cross-field kick for Reimis Smith to touch down out wide.
Meaney converted both tries to build a 20-8 lead but there were still some nervous moments to endure when Napa spilled a pass in front of his own posts in the 73rd minute and Kenny-Dowall scooped up the scraps to score between the sticks.
Lino converted to make it 20-14.
Thrilled, coach Dean Pay said: “Just so proud. So many players put their hand up and just wouldn’t give in today … that’s what we want to do.”