St George Illawarra defy horror week to defeat Newcastle 24-14 and possibly land home final
ST George Illawarra have defied a horror week to come from behind and down Newcastle 24-14 in the Hunter and possibly secure a home final.
Knights
Don't miss out on the headlines from Knights. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THEIR final game of the season was about getting their defence right and a 24-14 win featuring intent and energy meant Dragons coach Paul McGregor left McDonald Jones Stadium happy.
Coming off a 38-0 thumping by the Bulldogs the week before, McGregor wanted his team to show intensity in their defence against the Knights.
That, he got and even a late scare with five minutes to go wasn’t enough to detract from what he saw from his charges.
LISTEN! Nick Campton and Tim Williams preview Round 25, get the season reviews going and lament their truly appalling tipping skills.
Subscribe to the League Central podcast on iTunes.
It was a vast improvement on the average 26.6 they’ve missed since Origin and even fewer than their best this season, in Round 2 against the Sharks when they missed just 11.
Newcastle dominated possession and territory and the Dragons had to make 100 more tackles than their hosts, which is why McGregor was so pleased with the result.
“To a man, the effort there and the energy and intent, across the board, was very pleasing,” he said.
“We only missed fourteen tackles for the game and with the amount of possession made, we made 400 tackles.
“So that side of it, great. Errors and penalties, not good enough. We’ve got to learn from that. You can’t gift sides that possession so cheap.
Newcastle had led 10-2 at halftime; though the Dragons missing three chances in the first half — once for being in front of the kicker, the other two knock ons over the line. But a second half resurgence saw them slowly reel the game back in.
There was a sense of desperation but it didn’t stretch to panic.
They touched down for their first four-pointer when Jeremy Latimore kept powering at the line and took three Knights players across with him as he put it down under the posts in the 47th minute.
They scored long range tries at 10-minute intervals after that so with 10 minutes to go in the game they looked comfortable at 18-10.
CRASH: Retirement hits players hard
X-FACTOR: The key player for every finals team
A try to Knights winger Ken Sio in the 72nd minute brought his team to within four and they looked to have gone over again a few minutes later after Matt Dufty fumbled a kick 15 out from his line.
It was denied by the video ref for being inside the 10 from the kick and the Dragons shut Newcastle out from there. A try to Jordan Pereira, who had a solid day including a crucial tackle that shut down a potential try midway through the second half, sealed the 10-point win.
Stand-in St George Illawarra captain Cameron McInnes said the players wanted to play tough after their heavy loss the week before.
“Just attitude, having that want to get off the line and take the contact to them,” he said.
“That’s what we did all day. Regardless of how many tackles we had to make, there was a lot of them, we kept going all day.
“That’s the DNA of our team, so it’s going to be good for us in the finals definitely.”
The Dragons now await other results to know if they host a final next week. Currently in sixth place, a win by 22 or more by the Broncos over the Sea Eagles would drop them into seventh.
They’ll be boosted by the return of Gareth Widdop next week. The captain could have played this week but with a top four spot out of the question he was rested to be ready for their finals tilt. Euan Aitken and Jason Nightingale could also make returns.
McGregor is confident his team will have more points in them as they return to full strength.
“We got ‘Gaz’ back next week so the attack’s going to improve straight away,” he said.
“Defensively we needed to get that right.
“We would have liked to have scored those opportunities we created and not turn over the possession we did, but we were good enough to defend it, that’s the main thing.”
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 24 (M Dufty J Latimore N MacDonald J Pereira tries Z Lomax 4 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 14 (K Sio 2 S Kenny-Dowall tries N Meaney goal) at McDonald Jones Stadium. Referee: Henry Perenara, Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski. Crowd: 24,662