Cronulla finally buried their Kogarah hoodoo with an epic 18-14 win over fierce local rivals St George Illawarra.
The Sharks, who had lost seven of their last eight visits north of the Captain Cook Bridge, won an absorbing derby to hand the Dragons their third loss in a row and leap frog them into second place.
It was a see-sawing contest, with the lead switching six times before the Sharks held on for a four-point victory. The depleted Dragons were again brave without two of their best players, Josh Dugan and captain Gareth Widdop, through injury.
There were stars on both sides. Jack Bird showed why he will be so badly missed in the shire next season. Paul Vaughan showed why he must play State of Origin for NSW.
The Dragons opened the scoring after 20 minutes with a Tim Lafai penalty goal when Matt Prior rocked Joel Thompson with a heavy shoulder charge that left the Dragons’ forward reeling. The Sharks’ prop was not placed on report but he might be in trouble with the match review committee.
The hosts were forced into a reshuffle shortly after when Euan Aitken suffered a recurrence of a hamstring problem that ruled him out of representing Country against City last weekend. Aitken’s misfortune saw electric youngster Jai Field enter the game at five-eighth with Kurt Mann shifting to the wing.
Cronulla crossed for the first try shortly after from a sharp piece of play from Jayden Brailey.
A Valentine Holmes’ bust gave the Sharks field position before Brailey feigned to fire a pass to the open side from dummy-half right on the Dragons’ try line. Instead, the young hooker found Holmes back on the short side creating a three on one, with Holmes finding Ricky Leutele to score.
But the Dragons hit straight back. A mishit Lafai kick-off swirled viciously at Wade Graham. The representative forward tried to trap it with his foot but only managed to bundle the ball over the sideline.
From the next set, Vaughan charged over from close range to take back the Dragons’ lead.
In truth Cronulla had done well to get to half-time 8-6 down. While the Dragons had completed 18 of their 19 sets, the Sharks could only manage to finish nine of their 16. Cronulla also gave away five penalties to the Dragons’ two and made eight errors to the Dragons’ one.
But, despite again not being at their best, the reigning premiers found a way to get their noses back in front 10 minutes into the second half.
A sweeping play to the left saw Graham get Leutele outside Taane Milne with a perfect cut out pass. Leutele then shifted it on for Sosaia Feki to slide over in the corner, though Leutele’s one-handed flick pass appeared to travel forward.
Andrew Fifita made a 30 metre break from the kick-off return to almost help Cronulla extend their lead from the next set. Townsend kicked for the corner on the last tackle only for Jack Bird to knock the ball on in the contest before grounding it.
The Sharks were made to pay when Vaughan proved he could set them up as well. The NSW State of Origin hopeful charged between two of his prospective Blues teammates Fifita and Graham and flicked a pass to Russell Packer to score his first try for the Dragons next to the posts.
Thompson then produced one of the efforts of the match. With Cronulla coming out of their own end, Chad Townsend made a break down the right. The Sharks’ halfback looked as though he could go all the way when Dragons’ fullback Jason Nightingale slipped over only for Thompson to somehow run him down.
The match was to have a final twist eight minutes from full-time.
Nightingale produced a try-saving tackle of his own to deny Graham. From the next play, Townsend looped a pass out to the left which was allowed to bounce. Bird won the race to the ball after a scramble and flicked it up to Feki to score his second in the corner.
The Dragons then put their kick-off out on the full to allow Sharks field position and they could have sealed the result when Graham to find an unmarked Feki with another inch-perfect pass. But, with the line wide open, Feki shelled his chance at a hat-trick.
The Dragons kept trying but the Sharks held on to win back the Monty Porter Cup as the travelling Cronulla fans celebrated with a rousing rendition of “Up, up Cronulla” on the hill.
Make no mistake, they will both be around at finals time. And both have the potential to go deep into September.
A Dragons-Sharks derby grand final, anyone?
Leader Scoreboard
Cronulla Sharks 18 (Sosaia Feki two, Ricky Leutele tries. James Maloney three goals)
defeated
St George Illawarra Dragons 14 (Paul Vaughan, Russell Packer tries. Tim Lafai three goals)
at UOW Jubilee Oval, Kogarah
Crowd: 15,927
Leader man of the match: Paul Vaughan (Dragons)
Dragons’ next three: Warriors (away), BYE, Tigers (home)
Sharks’ next three: Cowboys (home), Bulldogs (home), BYE
