Knee injuries to Matt Burton and Viliame Kikau sent shudders through an otherwise sweltering and salubrious Belmore Oval as Canterbury dismantled the Gold Coast 40-24 on Sunday evening.
Burton went down with a suspected torn medial cruciate ligament – typically a 4-6 week injury – midway through an otherwise dominant first half for the Bulldogs.
Canterbury are already expecting to be without Burton for games against Parramatta, Cronulla and Newcastle before a bye in round six.
Kikau didn’t get up from a 74th-minute tackle on Moeaki Fotuaika and had to be helped off amid fears of medial ligament damage as well, taking the shine off Canterbury’s first 2-0 start to a season since 2016 when Des Hasler was coaching at the famous club.
Just for fun, the Titans largely insipid showing to start their own campaign, after a round one bye, continued a bizarre record of Hasler’s own. His seventh first-up loss to start a season is the longest such streak by any coach in rugby league history.
With the mercury pushing 35 degrees at kick-off, the Bulldogs took just one set to get into their groove while the Gold Coast floundered and Des Hasler left million-dollar forward David Fifita on the bench for 48 minutes.
The blue and white faithful at Belmore.Credit: Getty Images
A sold-out, 17,892-crowd was in full voice as Canterbury’s dominance started with defence and the Titans being driven backwards in the opening few tackles of the game.
The locals were louder still when Reed Mahoney charged down a desperate clearing kick at the end of the set. They were singing in the stands by the time some quick hands down the left put Marcelo Montoya over in the corner.
The Bulldogs raced the clock with a 22-0 lead in as many minutes. Soft tries to Jaeman Salmon and Josh Curran were matched by an offloading, swerving, swinging team try to Mahoney.
When prop Max King came from the sweltering field, chest-thumping and cajoling the crowd at the top of his lungs, the masses responded in kind.
Matt Burton is helped off the field at Belmore Oval.Credit: Getty Images
Burton’s knee injury, coming when he was caught awkwardly in a tackle on Jojo Fifita, briefly took the wind out of both Canterbury and the crowd.
The Gold Coast quickly seized upon the backline upheaval to run in a pair of tries to Alofiana Khan-Pereira.
But after going to the break up 22-12, the Bulldogs took less than a minute to strike again as Khan-Periera fumbled his first touch of the second half.
A dropped bomb by the Gold Coast flyer landed straight in the lap of Harry Hayes, with Jacob Preston finishing off to keep the Titans at bay.
Tries were traded by Kurt Mann and Titans skipper Tino Fa’asuamaleaui – returning to the scene of his ACL rupture last year – before a long break from Keano Kini was finished off by Fifita.
The Titans threatened, but couldn’t muster a grandstand finish their lacklustre defence didn’t deserve. A runaway try to Connor Tracey confirmed as much two minutes from full-time.
Aside from Burton and Kikau, the Bulldogs will be watching Monday’s charge sheet after Mahoney (contact on the kicker) and Montoya (shoulder charge) were placed on report ahead of next Sunday’s grudge match against Parramatta.
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