31 Aug 2009

Bulloogs top after beating Warriors

8:06 am on 31 August 2009

The Warriors' season in the National Rugby League keeps getting worse with Bulldogs inflicting a 40-20 defeat in Sydney.

Although they started well the Warriors were missing captain Steve Price and Simon Mannering and the Bulldogs pulled away to lead 28-4 at half-time, going on to score six tries.

Manu Vatuvei and Sam Rapira shared the Warror's four tries.

It was always going to be hard for the visitors with nearly 42,00 fans packing the ground to farewell the NRL's greatest points scorer Hazem el Masri, who kicked eight from eight in his last regular season home game.

The win takes the Bulldogs to the outright lead but their title chances took a big hit with halfback Brett Kimmorley probably out for the rest of the season after a head clash with Jerome Ropati.

Earlier Manly secured a spot in the NRL finals with a late try to Ben Farrar giving them an 18-16 win over Cronulla.