By Kim Petersen
The Illawarra Cutters continued their great start to the season by defeating the Canterbury- Bankstown Bulldogs 34-22 at WIN Stadium last Saturday afternoon.
The Canterbury side, who have won just two matches this season, got off to a flying start when they scored two tries in the opening 16 minutes to lead 12-0.
The Illawarra Cutters took 22 minutes to open the scoring when former Canterbury player Shane Pumipi got over the white stripe.
Two minutes before the half-time break, the Illawarra Cutters crossed for a four pointer when Kyle Eather scored. Michael Witt added the conversion to make it 12-all.
It took five minutes of the second half for the Illawarra Cutters to take the lead for the first time in the game after centre Peter Mata’utia scored.
The Illawarra side increased their lead in the 54th minute when prop-forward Rory O’Brien barged over from close range. Witt had no trouble with the extras to give his side a 22-12 lead.
Three minutes later, Adam Quinlan and Craig Garvey combined to send Witt over for a four pointer. Witt kicked the goal to give the home side a 28-12 lead.
Heading into the final 10 minutes, the Illawarra Cutters were in full control and it looked like they would skip away with the game.
But the Canterbury Bulldogs had other ideas and scored two tries in three minutes to make the score 28-22.
But just as the Canterbury-Bankstown side was trying to level the score, the Cutters wrapped up the game with a try to winger Kiti Glymin.
The win has the Illawarra Cutters in second spot on the VB NSW Cup competition table, just one point behind league leaders Wentworthville.
The top two sides will do battle this weekend at Pirtek Stadium in what promises to be a great match.
Illawarra Cutters 34 (P Mata'utia, K Eather, K Glymin, S Pumipi, R O'Brien, M Witt tries; M Witt 5 goals) def. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 22 (K Brennan, L Perrett, D Cook, P Templeman tries; P Templeman 3 goals) at WIN Stadium