Friday’s NRL 2018 Round 3 match is between Canterbury Bulldogs and Penrith Panthers. The opening kick is set to commence at 18:00 local time with the game to be played at ANZ Stadium. The away team Penrith Panthers are the favourites for the match. View our preview and teams for the game between Canterbury Bulldogs and Penrith Panthers.
When: 18:00 | Friday 23/03/2018
Where: ANZ Stadium
Preview:
An ugly 0-2 start has forced the hand of new Bulldogs coach Dean Pay and Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Frawley has ‘paid’ the ultimate penalty.
Frawley has been dumped from the side, replaced by Jeremy Marshall-King as the Bulldogs look to a new playmaker to partner Kieran Foran in the halves.
The Panthers, on the other hand, are sitting at a rosy 2-0 but they won’t want to make it a regular habit of having to erase 14-point deficits every week.
The Bulldogs have a 15-18 (45.5 percent) record playing within its home state after a loss since 2015.
Penrith are 8-19-0 (29.6 percent) as an away team from 2016 in the “First half (Highest Scoring Half)” market.
The Verdict
Up against the winless Bulldogs, the buoyant Panthers will like their chances of advancing to 3-0 and this is a match-up they’ve dominated in recent times.
Penrith lead the head-to-head 9-5 since 2010 including wins in the last 3 and a 38-0 blowout in their last clash.
The Bulldogs struggle to score and are averaging just 15.0 PPG over the last two seasons.
Unibet Odds: Canterbury Bulldogs 2.45 Penrith Panthers 1.56
Odds:
OFFER: Deposit $50 BET with $200 via this link – Ends Soon!
Tip: Penrith Panthers at $1.60
Value Tip: First Try Scorer: Waqa Blake at $11.00
More Info:
Teams:
Bulldogs:
1 Moses Mbye, 2 Brett Morris, 3 Josh Morris, 4 Will Hopoate, 5 Marcelo Montoya, 6 Jeremy Marshall-King, 7 Kieran Foran, 8 Aaron Woods, 9 Michael Lichaa, 10 David Klemmer, 11 Joshua Jackson (c), 12 Raymond Faitala-Mariner, 13 Aiden Tolman
Interchange: 14 Adam Elliott, 15 Asipeli Fine, 16 Danny Fualalo, 17 Fa’amanu Brown
Reserves: 19 Francis Tualau, 20 Kerrod Holland, 21 Renouf Toomaga, 23 John Olive.
Panthers:
1 Dylan Edwards, 2 Josh Mansour, 3 Waqa Blake, 4 Dean Whare, 5 Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 6 James Maloney, 7 Nathan Cleary, 8 James Tamou, 9 Peter Wallace (c), 10 Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 11 Viliame Kikau, 12 Isaah Yeo, 13 Trent Merrin
Interchange: 14 Tyrone Peachey, 15 Corey Harawira-Naera, 16 Moses Leota, 17 James Fisher-Harris
Reserves: 18 Sione Katoa, 19 Nick Lui-Toso, 20 Jarome Luai, 21 Christian Crichton.
NRL News:
Penrith will be have to field their third-different backline in as many NRL games, with a broken jaw ruling out winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak for up to six weeks.
The 22-year-old was injured in Saturday’s defeat of South Sydney, but played on through the pain.
It’s understood Penrith officials had toyed with the option of playing him again on Friday against Canterbury, but there is a concern he could miss up to 12 weeks in the event of another knock.
In good news for the Kiwi international, he will not require surgery or to have a plate inserted. Instead, he have a vertical stint put into his chin to keep his teeth in place.
It comes just a week after Dean Whare returned to left centre from a hamstring injury, sustained in the Panthers’ final pre-season trial.
However, with the loss of Watene-Zelezniak, Whare or right centre Waqa Blake are likely to shift to the left wing, with Tyrone Peachey coming off the bench and into the centres for Friday’s clash.
Other options for coach Anthony Griffin include elevating rookies Christian Crichton or Tom Eisenhuth onto the wing in place of Watene-Zelezniak.
“We’ve got a lot of good young guys coming up through the juniors,” Whare said.
“Hopefully, stay (at left centre) but definitely able to play both sides or on the other side on the wing.”
There is also an outside chance fullback Dylan Edwards might be unavailable, as his partner Nadine prepares to give birth.
The couple are due to become parents this week for the first time. Edwards confirmed on Wednesday he would miss the game to attend the birth if it timed out that way.
“My daughter will come first. She’s a little girl so she will come first for sure,” Edwards said.
“(She’s due) on Thursday. It could be any day; it could have been yesterday – it could be any day.
“But at the moment, she hasn’t decided to come yet so I haven’t really thought about it.”
