Darwin Dragons’s early intensity sees off University Pirates in sweltering heat

DARWIN Dragons fought off the wet season heat with early intensity to win 27-21 over University Pirates at University Oval.

Dragon's captain Andrew Tobin was proud of his side’s win in a hot game against the Pirates. Picture: Glenn Campbell

DARWIN Dragons fought off the wet season heat with early intensity to win 27-21 over University Pirates at University Oval yesterday.

The Dragons on the attack from kick off applying pressure in the Pirates half and using their forwards power to push their tight head prop Hare Winitana over for a try.

The prop was back in the scoring soon after with Dragons benefitting from Pirates dropped ball to score their second and settle themselves into a lead.

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University looked to end the opening half with a score of their battling hard on the Dragons line but the big Darwin forwards knuckled down forcing a knock-on.

Dragons extended their lead early in the second half with Nicholas Bierman kicking a quick penalty while new French import Mickael Becat-Narbey took a try as rewards for his efforts.

Pirates looked like they let another chance go begging when Eli Taulelei ran down the wing only to knock on however an illegal tackle gave the home side a penalty try and a spot on the scoreboard.

The visitors were quick to reply with full back Becat-Narbey kicking perfectly into space to feed a Hirini Murfitt score soon after in what would become the game winning try.

University stalwart and player-coach Robbie Butcher put his foot down thereafter making two try scoring line breaks, one for himself and another for Thomas Blackwood putting the game within a score.

However, Butcher was soon sent off for repeated infringements and University were forced to defend with only 14 men with the game nearing its close.

Dragons failed to get passed the Pirates wall and once Butcher came back on a late game stealer looked on the cards though a botched throw at the lineout saw an end to the comeback.

Darwin captain Drew Tobin was pleased to come away with the win following a game he classified as their proper introduction to wet season rugby.

“It was an exhausting game. We knew it would be hot playing in the wet and that was probably our first real taste of a wet game,” Tobin told the Sunday Territorian.

“We always want to play with as much energy as possible when the ball is in play.

With it being hot we took some time between breakdowns but when play was on we played with as much energy as we could.

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“In that second half it was all about trusting in our systems and just pull back into our pattern. The main thing when we were tired was just to keep making our first up tackles and keep at it.”