Christian Tuipulotu brings back banned try celebration as Dragons win 38-12 over Titans

Just days after signing a new deal with the club, Dragons star Christian Tuipulotu brought back his banned try celebration, as his side dominated the Titans.

There’s a case to say in an alternate world, the Dragons would almost be top of the ladder right now.

It sounds absurd, especially when you see the betting markets for the wooden spoon and the ham-fisted errors they sometimes make, but if they had just held onto two 12-point second-half leads already this season, they would wake up on Saturday morning with only one team with more competition points: the Bulldogs.

But that’s done.

They can’t take back that buffer they butchered against a South Sydney team missing Cameron Murray, Latrell Mitchell et al and with only two fit players on the bench. And they can’t take back that cushion they coughed up against a winless Eels, belting a ball out on the full during golden point to allow Zac Lomax to sink the mightiest of revenge daggers.

What they can do is start clawing their way up the ladder, and it started with a thumping 38-16 win over the Gold Coast Titans at WIN Stadium on Friday night.

Dragons rookie Dylan Egan celebrates after scoring his first try in the NRL. Picture: Getty Images

To say they deserved a 20-point half-time lead would be one of the more remarkable statements of the season.

The Titans probed and prodded for most of the first stanza, and then the Dragons piled on three tries in six minutes and that was just about that.

“We’ve got this get out in front by 12 (method) and haven’t been able to put our foot on the throat or go to another level,” Dragons coach Shane Flanagan said. “Today, we did. That was nice to see we can kick away and get a bit of breathing space.”

THE MONEY MAN IS BACK – AND THEN GETS HURT

Remember when Dragons winger Christian Tuipulotu danced and jigged and revelled in that crazy “show me the money” celebration when he scored against the Bulldogs with his team trailing?

His coach wasn’t sure about it, the fans didn’t know what to think about it, but it’s back.

Christian Tuipulotu does his 'show me the money' try celebration.

After touching down for his second try of the night and with a contract extension on the way, Tuipulotu celebrated wildly with his trademark cash gesture. At least it was a more appropriate time to bring it out as the Dragons padded their lead to 24 points.

“I don’t care if he brings it back as long as we’re winning and he’s scoring winning tries,” Flanagan said. “It’s not the right way to do it when you’re not winning.”

But Tuipulotu’s night ended prematurely when he limped from the field with a hamstring injury, before fellow winger Tyrell Sloan also finished with a brace.

Fresh off signing a new contract Christian Tuipulotu shelved his bizarre 'money man' try celebration briefly 💸

But the Dragons winger wasted no time bringing it out of retirement after scoring a double in a big win over the Titans...

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ILIAS LACHS DOWN NO.7 FOR NOW

Lachlan Ilias has had a difficult start to life at the Dragons, and even though he’s on the comeback trail from a horrific injury, the clock is ticking.

When a team is frittering away big leads, it’s the No.7 who is usually the first in the gun, but he shouldn’t be alone.

Ilias threw a stray pass which led to an error and the first Titans’ try and spilt another one cold, but there were a few signs of life as he opted to run the ball on multiple occasions, set up Dylan Egan’s first NRL try with lovely sleight of hand and generally kicked neatly on a night which featured a stiff southerly along the coastline.

FIFITA A SHINING LIGHT FOR STRUGGLING TITANS

Is he a starter or is he not? Does it really matter?

David Fifita was thrust into Des Hasler’s starting team again despite being named on the bench earlier in the week.

For a while, it looked like the enigmatic back-rower would fully vindicate his coach’s decision, setting up the Titans’ first try with an offload to Brian Kelly, and then channelling a computer game when he swatted away Dragons defenders to set up his side’s second try after they retrieved the ball from the kick-off.

But despite Fifita’s dominance, Gold Coast couldn’t capitalise on the scoreboard.

While David Fifita was a shining light for the Titans, they failed to capitalise on the scoreboard. Picture: Getty Images

“It was a disappointing last seven or eight minutes in the first half,” Hasler said. “I think we lost it there. We probably showed for the first 25 or 30 minutes we can compete, but we’ve got to manage the game better and stop coming up with excuses.”

It was a rotten night for the Titans, who lost Brock Gray to the sin-bin for a high shot on Jack de Belin late in the game.