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Canterbury Bulldogs To Face South Sydney Rabbitohs In Nrl Grand Final

NRL – Canterbury Bulldogs to take on South Sydney Rabbitohs in Grand Final

Sports Editor
in Rugby League 28 Sep 2020

Josh Jackson (credit: Renee McKay/Getty Images)

Canterbury Bulldogs will face South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2014 NRL Grand Final after getting the better of the Penrith Panthers in their Preliminary Final.

The 2014 NRL Grand Final will take place at the ANZ Stadium on Sunday, October 5th, with Souths – who finished third – go into battle with the team who ended the regular season in seventh position – the Canterbury Bulldogs.

The Doggies lined up against Penrith Panthers, who finished fourth after the weekly rounds, but Des Hasler’s men have that will to win in the play-offs to reach their second final in three years.

Canterbury needed a good start against the Panthers to give themselves a chance of making the Grand Final and they did that as they led 12-0 after 27 minutes thanks to tries from James Graham and Josh Jackson – both were converted by Tim Lafai.

If Penrith were going to have a chance they needed to score next and before half time and they did both as the ever impressive Matthew Moylan went over as the hooter sounded. Jamie Soward converted and they trailed 12-6 at the break.

James Graham (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
In recent weeks the Bulldogs have failed to score many points and that would have given Penrith plenty of confidence but Dale Finucane got what was eventually the match winner as he crossed over to give the Doggies an 18-6 lead with 20 minutes remaining.

It was desperate stuff now for the Panthers and they gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Dallin Watene-Zelezniak did well to collect a Soward bomb to score and make it 18-12 with eight minutes left on the clock.

Matt Moylan (Renee McKay/Getty Images)
Time ran out for the Panthers as Hasler’s men book a date with destiny against Michael Maguire’s Bunnies.

David is Crunch Sport's baseball guru. He's a walking, talking almanac when it comes to stats and facts. His elementary school dreams of playing professionally were scuppered by terrible co-ordination, but luckily his writing skills kept him in touch with his beloved sport through high school and beyond.

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