{"id":846821,"date":"2026-08-07T13:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/846821\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:30:23","slug":"roosters-pip-bulldogs-to-draw-level-with-league-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/846821\/","title":{"rendered":"Roosters pip Bulldogs to draw level with league leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Roosters have edged past Canterbury in a 20-18 win that has blown the race for the NRL\u2019s minor premiership wide open.<\/p>\n

On a pivotal night in the make-up of the top four, the Roosters moved up to second with a late win at Allianz Stadium that puts Trent Robinson\u2019s men level on 36 points with ladder-leading Penrith.<\/p>\n

The Panthers, who sit first as a result of their superior for and against, host the Roosters next Thursday and look set to be without captain Isaah Yeo.<\/p>\n

Even without facing Yeo, the Roosters will have to turn things up a notch against the Panthers as the race for the minor premiership looks set to go to the wire.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s side led 8-2 at half-time on Friday but were stunned when a try from Lachlan Galvin and a Jacob Kiraz double in a 12-minute second-half spell catapulted the Bulldogs into an unlikely lead.<\/p>\n

But a miscommunication at the back by Bulldogs fullback Connor Tracey allowed Salesi Foketi to dive on a loose kick and claim the match-winning try in the 69th minute.<\/p>\n

The victory gave the Roosters a seventh-straight win but also puts a major dent in Canterbury\u2019s top-eight aspirations after they threatened to upset the home side.<\/p>\n

Stephen Crichton kicked a penalty to get the Bulldogs on the board after sixth minutes before Sam Walker and Hugo Savala combined down the left to send Billy Smith in at the corner.<\/p>\n

Then after Matt Burton failed to gather a Daly Cherry-Evans bomb, Siua Wong touched down for the Roosters who led 8-2 at half-time after Walker failed to convert both kicks.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs had struggled for spark in the first half but they came back after half-time with a bang as hooker Bailey Hayward burst up the middle of the field and found a supporting Kiraz.<\/p>\n

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

The Canterbury winger scored under the posts as Crichton converted to tie the game up.<\/p>\n

Galvin then put the Bulldogs ahead for the first time when the five-eighth drifted across field and darted through a Reece Robson tackle to score.<\/p>\n

Galvin set up Kiraz for his side\u2019s third but Canterbury were unable to find a knockout blow and the Roosters clawed their way back into the game.<\/p>\n

Smith added a second with 15 minutes left before Foketi was in the right place at the right time, touching down a Walker bomb that Tracey failed to take to score the decisive try.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney Roosters have edged past Canterbury in a 20-18 win that has blown the race for the NRL\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-846821","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\/846821","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=846821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}