Dragons find the will to win as they edge brave Bulldogs 18-16 to reclaim top spot on ladder
UNLIKE previous seasons of failure, St George Illawarra have shown they’re ready to conquer the mental and physical hurdles thrown on to their path towards an NRL premiership.
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IT is usually the mid-season blues. This year it’s the NSW Blues.
Unlike previous seasons of heartbreaking failure, St George Illawarra have shown they’re ready to conquer the mental and physical hurdles thrown onto their path towards an NRL premiership.
ANALYSIS: Dogs must avoid spoon
ACCEPTANCE: Mbye opens door for early exit
Monday at ANZ Stadium, the Dragons had four Origin players backing up in a gritty yet important 18-16 win over Canterbury.
This was a character-building victory.
The Dragons have built a reputation of starting a season fast and crashing out. In 2017 the Red-V were top of the table in May, yet missed the finals.
This year though, they look different. They look tough and resilient. They look like winners.
Victory on Monday elevated St George Illawarra back above Penrith on top of the NRL competition table.
“Your attitude comes from your belief, our belief is strong so obviously our attitude is there,” Dragons coach Paul McGregor said. “Your attitude is your behaviour and your behaviour turns into your action.
“So, for us, we’re very happy to get the result on back end of that. The boys kept finding something, which is really important.
“We came here to win and we got the win. We’re happy. We have a different attitude.”
Saints skipper Gareth Widdop added: “I’d like to think we have learnt from the past. We have a lot of belief about what we’re about.
“Certainly we’re playing with a lot of belief.”
Dragons Jack de Belin, Paul Vaughan, Tyson Frizell and Ben Hunt played yesterday after contesting Origin I last Wednesday.
Blues forward David Klemmer turned out for the Bulldogs too.
Despite the win, McGregor refused to look too far ahead.
“I can’t see around corners so I don’t know what’s coming next,” he said. “We still have a couple of Origins to get through and a Denver Test match to get through.
“We have a really tight schedule over the next months but we have things in place. We are sending one of our performance staff over there (to Denver).”
It was a gripping finish on Sunday before 21,376 fans with Canterbury having a scrum feed 10 metres from Saints’ goal line with just five seconds remaining.
Time for just one play.
The Bulldogs went right and sent a kick back across field for winger Brett Morris, which was taken by Dragons winger Kurt Mann to seal the victory.
For the Dogs, they just can’t seem to find success. Their effort on Sunday was heroic.
In fact, Canterbury winger Marcelo Montoya made a long break nearing full-time but for some reason tried to evade Dragons fullback Matt Dufty close to the sideline but was cut down and taken into touch. It was a massive play.
“It’s a new year and a different team,” said Widdop. “Although we didn’t play our best football it was certainly pleasing to get the two points.
“Obviously the Origin boys backed up and did a good job. We scrapped out a win which is tough in the NRL.”
One highlight was Dragons winger Nene McDonald’s try near halfback. He flew high and actually switched the ball from left hand to right hand before grounding it mid-air.
It was spectacular stuff for his seventh try of the season. Widdop’s conversion gave Saints a 14-6 halftime lead.
“The Dogs have now lost their last seven games by less than six points so they’re not the team … I know everyone is kicking them but they are a team that competes very hard and they’re not far away from a win,” McGregor said.
There was a highly contentious penalty midway through the second half when Saints hooker Cameron McInnes was penalised — under new rules — for deliberately passing the ball out of dummy half into a Canterbury player, Josh Jackson.
McInnes protested, stating Jackson was on his knees and directly in line with where the Saints hooker wanted to pass the ball.
McGregor wasn’t happy at full-time either.
“If you’re kneeling or standing in the ruck and the ball hits you on the way to a person that is going to kick the ball, it’s a penalty to us,” McGregor said. “That’s how I read it.”
The win must have been satisfying to Saints prop James Graham, who was ushered out of Belmore last year to ease salary cap concerns.
Graham took the first hit-up and was whacked by his former teammates. He bounced straight up, as he always does.
St George Illawarra hit the front late through a penalty goal after Aaron Woods was pinned for a late hit on Graham. It was another limp penalty for a game that is becoming limp.
The Dragons started brilliantly, their first break coming in the first minute, their first try in just the fourth minute when Hunt put centre Euan Aitken over.
It looked ominous for the Bulldogs but they stayed patient and fought hard to re-enter the match.
They could consider themselves unlucky to lose.
“I thought the first 20 was among our best for the year,” McGregor said.
“At different stages we certainly weren’t thinking clearly in the second half but we were still good enough to find something.”
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 18 (E Aitken N MacDonald T Sims tries G Widdop 3 goals) bt CANTERBURY 16 (A Elliott W Hopoate B Morris tries M Mbye 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Tim Roby. Crowd: 21,376.
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