Determined St George Illawarra Dragons see off New Zealand Warriors at WIN Jubilee Oval

VIDEO: Five nights after being robbed of two points, the Dragons returned to the winners circle with a grinding win over the Warriors.

Jason Nightingale scores a cracker for the Dragons.

CALL it a little bit of rugby league karma.

Finally, the football gods showed St George Illawarra some love.

Five nights after being robbed of two competition points against the Melbourne Storm, the Dragons returned to the winners circle with a grinding victory over New Zealand.

News_Image_File: St George Illawarra fullback Josh Dugan makes a break.

All Jason Nightingale was missing in the opening half was a pair of wings or a bright red cape.

The St George Illawarra flyer scored one of the season’s most sensational tries, leaping, diving and contorting his way across the line.

Leading 2-0 nearing the end of the opening half, the Dragons winger scooped up a loose cut out pass from Michael Witt before donning his Superman cape.

The Kiwi Test winger still had plenty of work in front of him, evading Dane Nielsen on his way to the line before landing awkwardly with his head and neck burrowed into the turf.

Nightingale took a minute to compose himself after scoring before getting off his haunches and returning to the fray.

News_Image_File: Mitch Rein gets the ball away.

St George Illawarra’s back three of Nightingale, Josh Dugan and Brett Morris were all superb, with NSW Origin hopeful Dugan sealing the win with a late try.

“It certainly has been a tough week but I was proud of the guys and their reaction and the response we got out of them from Monday night,” Dragons coach Steve Price said.

On the Nightingale try, Price said: “I was a bit scared the way his head fell on the ground there.

“And the Josh Dugan try where Mitch Rein did that little grubber, I was really proud of Mitch today, if he keeps going like that he’s certainly going to put his hand up for that sky blue jersey.”

News_Image_File: Jason Nightingale scores a cracking try.

Unfortunately for the NRL, it was far from all smooth sailing.

Another night, another refereeing mistake.

Trailing 12-6 midway through the second half, the Warriors scored a runaway try to human wrecking ball Manu Vatuvei.

The only problem was, the last pass was forward.

Dane Nielsen threw it slightly forward, the match officials missed it, and a disastrous round for the NRL match officials continued.

News_Rich_Media: St George coach Steve Price and captain Ben Creagh address the media after their side's 20-10 win over the Warriors.

Thankfully, it had no impact on the final result, with Dragons fullback Dugan sealing the win with a try ten minutes from full time.

The other issue for the NRL occurred when a group of fans on the Kogarah hill decided to set alight four flares, sending security rushing to the area.

With no clear cut culprit, no one was removed from the ground.

Just when the Warriors appeared completely devoid of any hope of striking a blow, enter England fullback Sam Tomkins.

Not to be outdone by Nightingale’s earlier heroics, Tomkins zig-zagged his way through three St George Illawarra players from 20m out in a scorching run to the try line.

News_Image_File: St George Illawarra Dragons fans let off a flare.

It was shades of Darren Lockyer or Benji Marshall at their absolute best, with the English fullback gliding across the ground.

The Tomkins flash of brilliance made it 12-6 to the Dragons, before the Red V pushed the lead to 14-6 courtesy of a penalty goal to Gareth Widdop.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 20 (M Cooper J Dugan J Nightingale tries G Widdop 4 goals) bt WARRIORS 10 (S Tomkins M Vatuvei tries S Johnson goal) at WIN Jubilee Oval. Referee: Jared Maxwell, Chris James. Crowd: 10,559.