Canterbury hooker Michael Ennis has taken first points in his battle with Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah for the NSW State of Origin No.9 jersey with two tries in the Bulldogs' scrappy 24-4 NRL win at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Ennis was on the spot twice to collect kicks from Ben Roberts and Brett Kimmorley before providing a kick for his halfback's late try as the Dogs took the first steps in getting their season back on track.

The beleaguered Bulldogs went into Friday night's clash with just one win from their first five games and another loss would have had the word "crisis" being used about the club, which finished second on the ladder last year.

There was little fluency in the way they went about it, but the determined Dogs did enough to unsettle the high-flying Tigers, whose handling was woeful as they adapted to life with debutant halfback Blake Lazarus.

Tigers coach Tim Sheens will now be sweating on the return of No.7 Robert Lui, due back in two weeks, after talented stand-in Tim Moltzen's season was ended by an ankle injury last week.

The Dogs scored four tries to one, with fullback Luke Patten and Kimmorley adding to Ennis' double and Bryson Goodwin booting four from four in front of 19,491 fans.

The Tigers' sole points came from winger Lote Tuqiri, whose barnstorming 50m effort in the 59th minute had narrowed the margin from 12-0 to 12-4.

Leading 6-0 at the break after dominating the first half territorially, the Bulldogs extended their lead to 12-0 seven minutes after halftime when Patten capitalised after a strong run from winger Goodwin.

That scoreline remained until Ennis grabbed a Kimmorley kick in the 74th minute and the No.7 touched down in the 77th.

Ennis' first try in the 35th was controversial in a first 40 minutes in which the Tigers weren't getting the rub of the green, but video referee Paul Simpkins ruled Dogs centre Jamal Idris had not knocked Roberts' kick forward.

"It's relieving in a sense," Ennis said. "From the get-go our minds were on the job."

"We were nice and composed and challenged through the ruck and stuck at what we planned to do and then the opportunities came at the back end of the game."

And Ennis rated his own game as he notched one over rival Farah.

"It was good," he said. "The big guys did a hell of a job and that's when you start to see myself and Noddy (Kimmorley) and guys like Ben Roberts and General (Patten) brought into the game.

"I'm fortunate I've been around a little while and know that people's opinions are what they're going to be ... as long as I've got the belief and the support of the guys in amongst this group then that's all that matters."

Farah, who played through the pain of an elbow injury for most of the match, also praised Ennis' game.

"It was hard with the lack of ball that we had so any half and hooker's going to struggle when you're defending your tryline and trying to get the ball out of your own half," he said.

"They played well, I thought Kimmorley and Mick controlled the game well, kicked in the corners and made it hard for us."

The game ended on a sour note with a verbal exchange between Dogs prop Ben Hannant and several Tigers forwards before a Canterbury official intervened.

"I missed it but I saw Chris Heighington and Benny and I think one of their team managers, he was running his mouth off," Farah said.

"I don't know about ... what happened but I just grabbed Hieghno and pulled him away, made sure that that's where it stopped."

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