St George Illawarra Dragons beat Gold Coast Titans 8-6 in NRL round 16 clash

YESTERDAY morning, Steve Price woke to read his own obituaries - by the time he went to bed, he was the happiest coach alive.

YOU'VE got to love this game.

Yesterday morning, Steve Price woke to read his own obituaries - by the time he went to bed, he was the happiest coach alive and ready to declare the "Dragons of old were back".

"That was the best we've defended for a long time, I thought it was outstanding," a clearly relieved Price said in the wake of a thrilling - if controversial - 8-6 victory over Gold Coast.

GALLERY: DRAGONS V TITANS

"We can get a lot of confidence out of that. It was back to the Dragons of old tonight I thought defensively. We just kept turning up for each other. It's a credit to the guys. I'm really proud."

Asked if it was the type of win that could turn their season, Price continued: "Definitely. I've been saying for a couple of weeks, we haven't been too far away."

Told it was an ugly win, Price smiled: "It doesn't matter how it looks, two points are two points. We won't be talking about this game in six to eight weeks' time."

But you can bet we'll still be talking about referees - just as John Cartwright was last night after Queensland Origin star Nate Myles copped two late penalties that led to Jamie Soward conversions and ultimately cost the Titans victory.

Cartwright fumed: "In the scheme of the game when it happened, I haven't seen penalties given in that instance all year, I really haven't. It is the unwritten law that when the clock winds down they put the whistle in their pocket - and it's a law because it happens every week.

"That is why we get used to it.

"Three penalties in the last 15 minutes of the game is just fair call?"

Referees' boss Bill Harrigan will probably argue Cartwright should be taking out his frustrations on Myles because the penalties were deserved and dumb.

The first came in the 68th minute when the Titans were leading 6-4 and Myles was penalised for holding down Jason Nightingale in front of the posts.

Then, in the 72nd minute, Myles caught Nathan Fien with a lazy tackle around the shoulders that cost his team another two points and the match. But back to the Dragons, who now take on Canberra on Monday week.

See how we covered the game at our match centre

Like coach Price, skipper Ben Hornby was a relieved man: "I thought everyone was pretty fantastic in defence and attack tonight." It was certainly that.

The Titans dominated first half possession with a 59-41 per cent share of the ball but it was St George Illawarra who went to the break 4-0 up despite making a staggering 61 more tackles. And under fire all season for boring attack, last night, it was like someone finally turned on the lights.

Soward was taking on the line and taking chances, while around him teammates had broken the shackles and discovered confidence to take some chances.

It started in the second half last week against the Bulldogs and Hornby admitted that is what inspired the change.

"We wanted to continue on with what we were doing last week," Hornby said. "We felt like that worked for us so we tried to take that into this week."

And brave.

At one point the Dragons had to hold the Titans out for eight consecutive sets with some tryline defence that was a throwback to the old days under Bennett.

Soward laid on the first try for Daniel Vidot with a lovely cut-out pass in the 31st minute before boom youngster Aidan Sezer put through a lovely fourth-tackle grubber at the posts and skipper Scott Prince pounced for the game's only other try in the 53rd minute.

But when Myles' made his two late blunders, the Dragons held on. Dean Young was placed on report for an incident in the 60th minute when he hit Matt Srama with a careless elbow.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 8 (D Vidot try J Soward 2 goals) GOLD COAST 6 (S Prince try S Prince goal) at WIN Stadium. Referees: Gavin Morris, Jason Robinson. Crowd: 10,194

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