Canterbury Bulldogs thump hapless Gold Coast in brutal shutout

The pressure valve has been well and truly released on Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo after his side thumped a hapless Gold Coast 32-0 at Belmore.

With two losses to open the NRL season after some heavy recruitment, questions were being asked of second year coach Ciraldo, who had come out of the highly-rated Penrith system.

But the coach was confident his troops weren’t far away from a break-through win and they proved him right in their Saturday afternoon match, smashing the Titans in a six-try to nil romp.

Des Hasler’s men had a chance to make an early statement but AJ Brimson ignored clear passage to the line and instead passed to Kieran Foran, who dropped it cold.

It proved the last time the Titans really threatened the line with Bulldogs dominant in every department.

They shared the spoils amongst six different try-scorers with Jacob Preston opening their account in the 17th minute off a short ball from Drew Hutchison.

His second-row partner Viliame Kikau, who battled injury last season after joining from the Panthers, was in a damaging mood and came up with their second try in the 29th minute after charging down a Tanah Boyd kick.

Also winless going into the match, Gold Coast only trailed by 12 at halftime but that blew out in quick fashion with Bulldogs hooker Reed Mahoney burrowing over.

The Canterbury faithful were in full voice in their spiritual home as Jacob Kiraz kept the scoreboard ticking over and then Connor Tracey finished off some interplay by ex-Panthers trio Kikau, Stephen Crichton and Matt Burton.

Two minutes later Blake Taaffe added their sixth and final four-pointer in the 62nd minute.

At the same time, Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui limped off with a suspected knee injury to complete a miserable afternoon for the Gold Coasters.