England forward Luke Thompson made his eagerly anticipated NRL debut this past weekend but couldn’t stop his Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs side falling to a 26-8 defeat at Brisbane Broncos.

Thompson had an ongoing battle with Brisbane youngster Tevita Pangai Junior while running for almost 100 metres and making an impressive 36 tackles; the second highest of any player on the field for the Bulldogs.

Last year’s Harry Sunderland trophy winner will be hopeful of maintaining his place in the side as Canterbury face James Graham’s former side St George Illawarra Dragons.

It was a tough weekend for the Canberra Raiders quartet suffering a 14-20 defeat against Melbourne Storm with Josh Hodgson suffering an ACL injury which could see him sidelined for the remainder of the season.

Elliott Whitehead, Ryan Sutton and George Williams all featured for the Raiders, but the narrow defeat means Canberra have slid to 7th in the NRL.

Ryan Hall returned to a dominant Roosters side in place of an injured Daniel Tupou and helped Sydney to a huge 16-42 win against North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville.

The former Leeds winger made 127 metres from his 15 carries and will be in the running to retain his place in the squad to face Canberra on Thursday in a fixture which has plenty of English involvement.

The former Leeds winger made 127 metres from his 15 carries and will be in the running to retain his place in the squad to face Canberra on Thursday in a fixture which has plenty of English involvement.