 The St George Illawarra Dragons juggernaut toward the first weekend in October has rolled on after a hard fought 28 - 22 win over the Cronulla Sharks in week one of the finals series at WIN Stadium tonight.
The win has given the Dragons the week off, thanks to finishing the preliminary season in second position and now find themselves only one game away from the grand final, while for their neighbours Cronulla, mad monday planning is in full swing.
The match was a classic local derby with both sides leaving absolutely nothing in the tank. Despite staring defeat in the face at 12 - 4 down early in the second half, the home side rallied to put on three tries in the space of 12 minutes the break the backs of their desperate opponents.
For coach Nathan Brown, the win, while not his sides prettiest, was still up there as one of his most memorable.
"They (Cronulla) put us under the pump but I thought we were far superior when we controlled the ball and it was a great effort for us to win."
But the situation was put into perspective by Sharks captain Brett Kimmorley, who in the post match conference stated that St George Illawarra would have to lift their game if they were to win the comp.
Brown had no hesitation in agreeing with the number seven.
"We're not going to win the competition on that performance", said a somewhat relieved Brown.
"We had to tough it out tonight, Cronulla really gave it to us, so we have plenty to work on."
Captain Trent Barrett, who according to many is the form player of the competition right now, said that the tough nature of the game could only benefit his sides chances in their next couple of matches.
"We showed we can hang in there", said Barrett.
"We've now got two weeks to fine tune our game and there is a great opportunity ahead of us."
Barrett's performance was sublime which included a key 40 / 20 kick, followed by a try assist to Dean Young two ruck later. That small passage of genius became the catalyst for the Dragons win.
Along with Barrett, the ground record crowd of 19 608 people, chiefly Dragons, helped their side lift. This didn't go unnoticed to Brown.
"The crowd was incredible as always, especially with the weather, the players and staff really do appreciate it."
Other stars for the red and whites included Luke Bailey and Jason Ryles, who were a tower of strength up front, while Michael Ennis was crafty out of dummy half. Special mention should also be given to Dragons legend Lance Thompson who tackled himself to a standstill in his 200th first grade game.
The visitors looked to have the better of play in the opening exchanges with a mountain of possession thanks to some uncharacteristic Dragons errors. Despite enjoying the great field position, the Sharks were only able to come up with one try, through former Dragon Beau Scott.
Only five minutes later the Dragons struck back on only their second venture into Cronulla's territory.
On the last tackle a Barrett bomb found a relatively unmarked Colin Best who dived over out wide untouched. Wes Naiqama missed the conversion and at the break, the Dragons trailed 6-4.
The second half started ominously for the Dragons with Sharks winger David Simmons scoring after multiple views by the co video referees. Luke Covell converted and the home side found themselves down by eight.
Obviously not at panic stations, the Dragons lifted a gear or two from the restart. In fact a jolting Thompson tackle forced a Sharks error from their first hit up. After gaining a second set of six, the home side struck back after replacement hooker Michael Ennis darted down the short side and after some quick hands, Best was over for try number two in the corner. Ennis brilliantly converted to narrow the margin to two.
From the next set of six, Barrett came up with the clutch play of the match. After some aggressive Sharks defence kept the Dragons pinned in their own 30, the champion number six kicked on the fourth and executed a perfect 40 / 20 kick.
"That's what his paid the big bucks for", said Brown whilst slapping Barrett on the back.
Just two rucks later, a Barrett second man ball found a rampaging Dean Young who squeezed through defenders to score. Ennis once again converted and the home side had their noses in front for the first time in the contest.
The Dragons then went on the rampage and threatened to open the flood gates.
With 24 minutes to go Barrett crashed over for a well deserved try of his own. Playing some fast paced 'touch football' style rugby league, a Shaun Timmins offload on the advantage line just ten metres out found the flying captain. With Ennis' conversion, St George Illawarra led 22-12 and to many it became a case of 'by how many.'
To their credit, the Sharks continued to fight back and were rewarded with a try soon after to Nigel Vagana.
Once again the video referees had multiple looks before flashing the green TRY.
With the match in the balance, a late try to Naiqama out wide looked to have the match all wrapped up at 28-18, but a try to Paul Gallen with two and a half minutes left had the record crowd missing ten fingernails.
Despite the visitors throwing all sorts of non textbook plays at them, the Dragons held on showing some premier - esk defence to claim the historic win.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 28 ( C Best 2, D Young, T Barrett, W Naiqama tries; M Ennis 4 goals) d. CRONULLA SHARKS 22 ( B Scott, D Simmons, N Vagana, P Gallen tries; L Covell 3 goals)
At WIN Stadium. Crowd : 19 608. Referee : Tony Archer.
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St George Leagues Club
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