Friday’s NRL 2018 Round 20 match is between Canterbury Bulldogs and Wests Tigers. The opening kick is set to commence at 19:55 local time with the game to be played at ANZ Stadium, Sydney. The away team Wests Tigers are the favourites for the match.
View our preview and teams for the game between Canterbury Bulldogs and Wests Tigers.
When: 19:55 | Friday 27/07/2018
Where: ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Preview:
Plenty of emotion for this clash!
Moses Mbye up against his old club will have much focus on him.
It’s business as usual for the players, however I’m sure it will be a strange feeling for him.
The Tigers have been the big hitters of the last two weeks and showing the type of form we saw off them at the start of the year.
Can they play finals?
I think if they are able to keep putting in performances like the last two weeks, I reckon they will.
I’m liking the style of play they are bringing now, it’s a very positive and energized game that has their opponents struggling to deal with.
KEY BATTLE: Moses Mbye v Will Hopoate
Players to watch include Bulldogs star Will Hopoate and the man I spoke of before, Moses Mbye.
They are both very privy to each other’s game and have such great attack up their sleeve.
The Verdict
The game will be decided in the middle of the field.
Can Robbie Farah put in another blue-chip game?
The Tigers have an 11-7 (61.1 percent) record as an away favourite in night matches since 2010.
Unibet Odds:
Canterbury Bulldogs at $2.70
Wests Tigers at $1.48
Tip: Wests Tigers at $1.40
Value Tip: First Try Scorer: Corey Thompson at $11.00
More Info:
Teams:
Canterbury Bulldogs:
1 Will Hopoate, 2 Brett Morris, 3 Josh Morris, 4 Kerrod Holland, 5 Reimis Smith, 6 Lachlan Lewis, 7 Jeremy Marshall-King, 8 Aiden Tolman, 9 Michael Lichaa, 10 David Klemmer, 11 Josh Jackson (c), 12 Rhyse Martin, 13 Adam Elliott
Interchange: 14 Fa’amanu Brown, 15 Greg Eastwood, 16 Ofahiki Ogden, 17 Danny Fualalo
Reserves: 18 Chris Smith, 19 Matthew Frawley, 20 Francis Tualau, 21 John Olive.
Wests Tigers: 
1 Moses Mbye, 2 David Nofoaluma, 3 Esan Marsters, 4 Kevin Naiqama, 5 Corey Thompson, 6 Benji Marshall, 7 Luke Brooks, 8 Russell Packer (c), 9 Robbie Farah, 10 Ben Matulino, 11 Michael Chee Kam, 12 Luke Garner, 13 Elijah Taylor
Interchange: 14 Alex Twal, 15 Sauaso Sue, 16 Robbie Rochow, 17 Matt Eisenhuth
Reserves: 18 Jacob Liddle, 19 Chris McQueen, 20 Pita Godinet, 21 Malakai Watene-Zelezniak.
NRL News:
The Wests Tigers have celebrated Robbie Farah’s 250th game for the club with a stunning 22-6 upset of NRL leaders South Sydney.
Arguably the best Tigers performance of the year not only brought the Rabbitohs’ nine-game winning streak to a halt and put a dampener on John Sutton’s 300th NRL game milestone, but also kept the joint venture’s finals ambitions alive.
The impressive victory in front of a strong crowd of 25,963 on Saturday night lifts the Tigers to within four points of the top eight with six games remaining.
Farah, playing against the Rabbitohs for the first time since his mid-season switch in June, left the field in a medicab following a head clash with George Burgess in the 71st minute.
Tigers coach Ivan Cleary was delighted with the way his team overcame five head injury assessments (HIAs) to keep the league’s best attack to their lowest score of the season.
“It was a really good 80-minute performance (on) both sides of the ball, I thought,” Cleary said.
“With a bunch of HIAs at regular occurrences throughout the second half, players went in different spots, we were still able to hold our defence together.
“Attack got a bit out of whack but that was probably understandable. Against obviously a very good attacking side who throw plenty at you, I thought we handled them pretty well.”
For the Rabbitohs, the heavy defeat opens the door for defending premiers Melbourne or St George Illawarra to move to the top of the table by the end of the round.
Down 10-0 at halftime, the Rabbitohs had a number of looks at reducing the deficit in the second half but were turned away by a Tigers defence reminiscent of their early-season form.
A Moses Mbye try extended the lead to 16 but it wasn’t until Corey Thompson’s 80m intercept try in the 67th minute that an impressive win was sealed.
Rabbitohs five-eighth Cody Walker nabbed a consolation try to avoid their first scoreless effort in more than two years.
The early signs pointed to boilover at ANZ Stadium, with Esan Marsters crashing over in the eighth minute following huge runs from the Tigers’ forwards.
Sam Burgess tried hard to inspire his teammates with some crunching hits, including a jolting stop on Farah that was put on report despite minor contact to the head.
However, the Tigers continued to absorb the pressure before turning the heat back on their opponents through David Nofoaluma’s diving effort for a 10-point lead at halftime.
Rabbitohs coach Anthony Seibold conceded his team were simply outplayed.
“I’m not a massive believer in having to lose a game to learn but the Wests Tigers were far better than us tonight. They beat us in most areas of the game, to be fair,” he said.
Sutton reached the 300-game milestone for the cardinal and myrtle – the first player in the 110-year history of the foundation club to do so.
