Red V fightback falls short

With four games left the Dragons now find themselves four points outside the eight with a points differential of -130, the worst of any of the sides in contention.

It looked like a long night when the Sharks opened the scoring after three minutes when Nicho Hynes strolled over, but the Dragons immediately hit back when a Ben Hunt bomb was spilled by Ronaldo Mulitalo and Jack de Belin picked up to score.

The Dragons then went down a man in the 12th minute when Tariq Sims was sent to the bin for high contact on Sharks winger Connor Tracey who was knocked unconscious dropping in a tackle.

Sims has taken the early guilty plea and as its his third and subsequent offence for the season it rules him out of the remainder of the Dragons' regular season fixtures.

The Sharks then went to 12 men when Blayke Brailey was sin binned on half-time for a ruck infringement and the Red V capitalised when Amone put Tautau Moga over with a long cut-out pass, Zac Lomax's sideline conversion making it 18-12.

When Mat Feagai scored in the 55th minute the Dragons were back within two points and really put on pressure.

With the game in the balance Tyrell Sloan spilled a bomb and Briton Nikora linking with Brailey, found Graham for the try. Hynes converted for the 24-18 win.

Dragons coach Anthony Griffin said they gave it everything but at times just didn't execute.

"The past three weeks we have played some really good football apart from probably the last 15 minutes against the Cowboys last week.

"It's frustrating because we've played three really good sides and put ourselves in a winning position .

"We did a lot of things right to try and win that game so we have to dust ourselves off and keep coming at it next Sunday."

The Dragons, who have now lost their last five games against the Sharks, expect to have Cody Ramsey back on deck for the crucial road trip to Canberra in Round 22.

They host the Titans at WIN Stadium in Round 23 before finishing the regular season against Wests Tigers and the Broncos.