Dragons fall 26-20 to Bulldogs and crash out of NRL finals race
ST George Illawarra had their finals place all but sealed but somehow blew it to fall spectacularly at the final hurdle.
NRL
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THIS was gut-wrenching.
Josh Dugan was in tears, bawling on the field. Gareth Widdop left shattered. Teammates sprawled all over ANZ Stadium.
A field of dreams became a paddock of pain.
St George Illawarra had their finals place all but sealed but somehow blew it to fall spectacularly at the final hurdle.
Needing a win to climb into the top eight and book a clash with Manly, the Dragons conceded two tries in seven minutes to lose 26-20 to Canterbury.
Ten months of hard yakka went down the drain in a matter of moments.
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But it was the story of Saints’ season — they had no consistency. After sitting atop the ladder after seven rounds, the Dragons couldn’t win back-to-back games from round 13.
On Sunday, they couldn’t prevent back-to-back tries ruining their season after they fought their way to a 20-14 lead.
North Queensland claimed eighth spot in the finals but appear cannon fodder for premiers Cronulla, who accounted for Newcastle 26-18.
The Sea Eagles will now prepare to play Penrith on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium.
Canterbury secured three successive wins to finish the season, which give coach Des Hasler a fighting chance to save his job.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor will have nightmares.
“Gutted. Absolutely shattered,” McGregor said.
“It shouldn’t have come down to today, but it did. We let a team that couldn’t score points score 26 on us. That wasn’t good enough.
“I thought we found energy at times during the game but we looked a bit flat. Penrith looked a bit flat last night.
“Maybe last week took a bit of energy out of both sides. But there are no excuses. We’re all gutted in the sheds.”
The Dragons finished with 12 wins and a points differential of +83, which was better than six of the top-eight teams.
“There are six games this year that come to mind that could have gone either way and we didn’t win any of them,” McGregor said.
“The competition is that close that when you don’t win the close ones continuously, you don’t play finals footy.
“If you look at the whole year, we’re disappointed not to play finals footy. We’re actually more than disappointed, we’re actually shattered not to play finals footy.”
St George Illawarra had two genuine chances to snatch a late try to level the scores but the ball went to ground.
Bulldogs players rejoiced at full-time.
Will Hopoate and the departing Michael Lichaa were inspirational.
Lichaa scored the matchwinner, while Hopoate was everywhere on the field.
Canterbury have looked a different team over the past month since the handbrake was released. But still, the Bulldogs will miss the finals.
The Dragons haven’t played September football for two years and have missed the top eight in five of the past six years.
Asked for his emotions, Dragons skipper Gareth Widdop said: “What do you reckon? Pretty disappointed. We had an opportunity to play finals but just weren’t good enough.”
Dogs coach Des Hasler praised his side’s tenacity and recently discovered ability to score points.
“We went into the game against a side with plenty to play for,” Hasler said.
“We’ve scored 16 tries over the last few weeks. That’s not bad.”
CANTERBURY 26 (W Hopoate M Lichaa M Montoya J Reynolds A Tolman tries M Mbye 3 goals) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 20 (M Dufty J Nightingale J Thompson tries G Widdop 4 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Chris Sutton, Ashley Klein. Crowd: 21,582
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