Bulldogs 30 Cronulla 22
FISTS, fury and frustration. Sonny Bill Williams may have looked like a lost puppy this week, but he bared his teeth last night. As he turned in a performance that showed how valued a commodity he is at the Bulldogs, he also showed his angry side, taking his recent frustrations out on Cronulla's forward pack.
After a week dominated by the prospect of him walking out on the Dogs, Williams was in everything, including two clashes with Cronulla forwards. At the end of the first half, he found himself in a push-and-shove with the Sharks' Blues forward Greg Bird, whose head appeared to clash with Williams's.
Later, he was told to "calm down" by referee Tony Archer after throwing the ball at returning Sharks forward Ben Ross - who had sat Williams on the deck - and then appearing to attempt to throw a punch his way.
Sharks coach Ricky Stuart, who showed his angry side with a fearful dressing down of his players in the dressing room and at a media conference, said Williams looked frustrated.
"There's obviously a lot going through Sonny's life at the moment," he said. "But that's for Canterbury and Sonny to fix."
Stuart's counterpart, Steve Folkes, would only say: "It's a pretty emotional game I suppose. All forwards like to get some dominance."
Asked if Williams looked frustrated, he said: "If you're trying to say that he was frustrated because of the week he had I think that's pretty much off the mark."
In terms of performance, Williams was on the mark. The 22-year-old turned in one of those matches that will be bittersweet if he makes good on his threats to leave the club to play rugby union.
After scoring on the half-hour, he hardly celebrated, showing the kind of mood he was in.
He wasn't talking afterwards, save for a brief television interview in which he said: "It's been a tough couple of weeks … I've just been sticking to what I know and that's playing football and being as professional as I can."
However, Williams's performance may have been upstaged by that of Corey Hughes's, who will almost certainly depart the club at the end of the season. Hughes's match-winning display came with the club close to signing Brisbane hooker Michael Ennis.
Andrew Ryan needed 12 stitches at half-time while Cameron Phelps, who is on a plane for Wigan this afternoon, suffered a cut eye as well as a bad back. For the Sharks, Brett Kearney damaged his ankle after 115kgs of Jarrad Hickey came down on him.
Stuart seemed to come out of it worse than anyone and was livid with his side's performance: "We've taken a night off," he said. "We just didn't front up. It's disappointing, but that first half was disgusting, just disgraceful. We're a better footy team than that."
Folkes, too, was critical of his side: "We'll forget the second half and go with the first half," he said. "There's no question we've been under a bit of pressure … we've had a stack of injuries and that's made things even tougher."
BULLDOGS 30 (T Winitana 2 D Holdsworth S Williams A Ryan tries H El Masri 5 goals) bt CRONULLA 22 (F Anderson D Nutley B Kimmorley B Pomeroy tries B Seymour 3 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: T Archer Crowd: 9,289
