It’s official. The Dragons love Kogarah.
St George Illawarra downed the New Zealand Warriors 26-12 on Sunday night to continue their impressive start to the season – and continue to defy the critics.
The 14-point win also extended the Dragons equally impressive run at their spiritual home. The victory was St George Illawarra’s eighth from their last nine games at UOW Jubilee Oval stretching back to April, 2015.
Fans were expecting to see the return of Kieran Foran for the Warriors, 300 days since his last appearance for Parramatta in round 12 last year.
But like that night in May, injury was to cruel Foran with the former premiership-winning five-eighth with Manly suffering a hamstring injury in the warm up. Foran’s absence caused a reshuffle for the Warriors, with Tuimoala Lolohea forced off the wing and into the halves.
The sides traded penalty goals in the opening 10 minutes before Paul Vaughan stormed over to give St George Illawarra an 8-2 lead.
The Dragons were rewarded for a good set after scoring with more points. Nene Macdonald produced a one on one steal on Solomone Kate close to the Warriors’ line, with Euan Aitken scooping up the loose ball and finding Josh McCrone. The halfback showed good strength to wrestle free from two Warriors defenders to extend St George Illawarra’s lead.
Josh Dugan then got in on the act on the back of some good lead up work from Jack de Belin, slicing between Ryan Hoffman and Jacob Lillyman to race 30 metres before powering past Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to give the Dragons a 20-2 advantage inside 22 minutes.
The Warriors finally got into the game four minutes later as Issac Luke barged over from close range to reduce the deficit. It was a soft try for the Dragons to concede and not in keeping with their strong first half.
But as poor as they were the in first half, the Warriors burst out of the blocks in the second.
An error from Dugan from the kick-off, catching the ball before placing his foot on the dead ball line, handed possession back to the Warriors. The visitors made them pay, with quick hands allowing Ken Maumolo to touch down in the corner.
But the Dragons weren’t going to allow the Warriors back into the game, reestablishing their lead 15 minutes into the second half through a slick individual effort from Tim Lafai after Gareth Widdop had spotted space down the short side.
Widdop’s conversion gave the Dragons a 26-12 lead and wracked up the St George Illawarra captain’s 500th point for the club, making him the third-highest point scorer in the club’s history. Only Mark Riddell (517) and Jamie Soward (977) are ahead of him.
Leader Scoreboard
St George Illawarra Dragons 26 (Paul Vaughan, Josh McCrone, Josh Dugan, Tim Lafai tries. Gareth Widdop five goals)
defeated
New Zealand Warriors 12 (Issac Luke, Ken Maumolo tries. Shaun Johnson two goals)
at UOW Jubilee Oval, Kogarah
Crowd: 11,608
Leader man of the match: Paul Vaughan (Dragons)
Dragons’ next three: Tigers (away), Sea Eagles (away), Cowboys (home)
