For more than 70 minutes it appeared that it was Parramatta who were top of the table and St George Illawarra the cellar dwellers.
But if the sign of a top team is finding a way to win when not at their best, then the Dragons will take much out of their last-gasp 20-18 win over the Eels on Thursday night.
St George Illawarra had plenty going against them. With a number of players backing up after the NRL’s stand alone representative weekend the Dragons looked flat. Coach Paul McGregor opted to rest Tyson Frizell while Leeson Ah Mau was ruled out after returning late from international duty with New Zealand in the US.
On a cold, wet and windy night in Wollongong, the Dragons looked a shadow of the team who had stormed to the NRL’s summit after 15 rounds.
But two tries in the final seven minutes saw St George Illawarra break the Eels’ hearts and continue their march towards the minor premiership, breaking a six-match losing streak against Parramatta in the process.
St George Illawarra opened the scoring against the run of play through a Gareth Widdop penalty goal after Parramatta had dominated early field position.
The Eels took the lead on 25 minutes when Tim Mannah jinked past an over-committed James Graham 25 metres out from his own line. Mannah stormed down field before finding Bevan French in support who raced away to score under the posts.
Parramatta were in again eight minutes later when Nathan Brown crossed for his first try of the season. A poor read in defence from Ben Hunt on his try line allowed Corey Norman to find Brown with a classy short pass.
St George Illawarra needed to respond before half-time and did so with one of the tries of the season.
A Paul Vaughan offload saw Widdop find Tim Lafai, with the centre sending Nene Macdonald down the touch line. The giant winger kicked back in field, with Widdop batting back the loose ball for Lafai who found Matt Dufty in support on the inside allowing the speedy fullback to streak away and score.
But just as it looked as though the Dragons were back in the game, a flat start to the second half allowed Parramatta to reestablish a 10-point lead.
Jarryd Hayne did brilliantly to touch down seven minutes after the break, showing great strength to hold off Kurt Mann and Vaughan to wrestle his way to the line.
The Dragons went close to reducing the deficit 12 minutes from full-time when Luciano Leilua barged over down the short side on the last tackle. On-field referee Ben Cummins ruled a try only for senior review official Ashley Klein to overrule the decision, with Norman somehow holding up Leilua and sliding him into touch.
St George Illawarra refused to quit, with Hunt rolling a tidy grubber kick into the in-goal area for Euan Aitken to touch down just short of the dead ball line on the back of a Dufty break to give the Dragons hope.
It was a brave decision from Hunt to kick early in the tackle account. It was almost an identical scenario to that late in State of Origin II, when the Queensland No.7 rolled the ball dead in goal. This time he executed the play perfectly to set up a grandstand finish.
And with three minutes remaining, a Tariq Sims bust gave the Dragons field position. A scramble on the last play saw the ball end up with Widdop, who showed incredible vision to roll a short kick in behind the Eels’ line for Dufty to race through and score under the posts.
The Dragons will now put their feet up before travelling to Melbourne to face the Storm next Friday night.
They will need to be greatly improved against Melbourne. But they remain top of the NRL table for at least another week as the season reaches its climax.
The Saints continue to march.
Leader Scoreboard
St George Illawarra Dragons 20 (Matt Dufty two, Euan Aitken tries. Gareth Widdop four goals)
defeated
Parramatta Eels 18 (Bevan French, Nathan Brown, Jarryd Hayne tries. Clint Gutherson three goals)
at WIN Stadium, Wollongong
Leader man of the match: Matt Dufty (Dragons)
Dragons’ next three: Storm (away), Tigers (home – Kogarah), Cowboys (away)
