{"id":822829,"date":"2026-07-25T11:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822829\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T11:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:20:16","slug":"new-father-crichton-returns-to-lead-bulldogs-past-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822829\/","title":{"rendered":"New father Crichton returns to lead Bulldogs past Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Crichton has capped his newfound fatherhood by leading Canterbury to a 18-6 win over the Warriors on his return from injury.<\/p>\n

Crichton was stretchered off Accor Stadium on a medi-cab a fortnight ago with nerve damage in his neck, but made a triumphant comeback at the same venue on Saturday night to supercharge the Bulldogs\u2019 finals hopes.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old\u2019s performance \u2013 in which he scored a try and kicked three goals \u2013 came less than 24 hours after his partner Leone welcomed their first child.<\/p>\n

Crichton, returning in the five-eighth role he was re-deployed in midway through this season, grabbed the Dogs\u2019 first try of the night when he backed up a Viliame Kikau offload and celebrated with a rocking baby motion.<\/p>\n

The Crichton try set the wheels in motion for another impressive victory for Cameron Ciraldo\u2019s men, who have five wins in their last six outings and are knocking on the door for a spot in the top eight.<\/p>\n

What would please Ciraldo the most was Canterbury\u2019s desperation in defence, with only a late Chanel Harris-Tavita try preventing the Warriors from going home scoreless.<\/p>\n

And while this was a night of celebration for the Bulldogs, the Warriors blew a golden chance to cut Penrith\u2019s lead in the race for the minor premiership.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Fisher-Harris and the Warriors.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Warriors coach Andrew Webster was visibly angered as his side toiled and the sight of seeing fullback Taine Tuaupiki limping off in a moon boot would have only added to his frustration.<\/p>\n

Crichton followed his sixth-minute opener by backing up a Jacob Kiraz break, which led to the Dogs swinging it left and then back to Lachlan Galvin on the right.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Tigers<\/a><\/p>\n

Galvin went to his favoured play \u2013 a short ball to Jacob Preston \u2013 and it worked wonders with the back-rower charging in to give the Dogs a 12-0 half-time lead.<\/p>\n

Kiraz scored off a scrum play to push Canterbury further ahead after the break, Crichton missing the touchline conversion but making amends with a penalty goal.<\/p>\n

Mitch Barnett was the surprising catalyst for the visitors\u2019 sole try in the 75th minute when the prop chipped over the top for Harris-Tavita to regather and score.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Crichton has capped his newfound fatherhood by leading Canterbury to a 18-6 win over the Warriors on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-822829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}