Canterbury admit losing Josh Reynolds for up to two months is a body blow as the NRL heavyweights look to bounce back from their underwhelming start to the season.
Scans have revealed Reynolds broke his arm in Sunday’s season-opening 24-18 loss to Penrith, with the NSW State of Origin five-eighth on Tuesday ruled out for “six to eight weeks”, according to the Bulldogs.
Reynolds would have missed two weeks after also accepting an early guilty plea for a dangerous throw charge, with Moses Mbye set to step in for Friday night’s bumper clash with Parramatta at ANZ Stadium.
While the Bulldogs are backing Mbye to fill the void, star forward Josh Jackson conceded last year’s grand finalists would miss Reynolds’ spark and spirit.
“We’ll definitely miss the energy that he brings to the side,” Jackson said.
“He’s a competitor and when we’re struggling a bit he makes a play and gets us back up.
“But we’ve got Moses Mbye, who’s been training in the halves all pre-season so he’ll be raring to go.”
Even with Reynolds on deck, the Bulldogs made a disappointing start to 2015, sloppy handling and ill-discipline helping the Panthers to a 24-0 lead on Sunday.
Canterbury captain James Graham said the Bulldogs needed to learn from the loss, saying the Eels, electric in their first-up win over Manly last Friday night, would punish the Dogs for any similar lack of ball control.
“It will help remind us that we can’t afford to start games like that with the level of competition in the NRL. You just can’t afford it,” Graham said.
“Throughout the history of the game, the team that has more possession and completes a higher percentage rate than the opposition normally goes on to win the game.”
Graham said Parramatta’s impressive first competitive showing without Jarryd Hayne came as no surprise to the Bulldogs.
“They’ve recruited very well and, if you look at their season last year, they were unlucky not to make the eight.
“The only games we had against them, we just beat them and there was another game where they beat us quite comfortably.”
