The St George Bank Dragons have tonight continued their good trial form with a 24-12 victory over the Bulldogs at WIN Stadium in front of 7,628 fans.
After being 12-all at half-time the home side dominated the second half scoring two more tries to seal victory.
Both Coaches used a lot of players throughout the contest and will continue to monitor their sides progress moving towards round one.
Dragons Coach Wayne Bennett was happy with the Dragons performance and believed his troops were heading in the right direction.
We are working toward round one here, Bennett said. We ran a fair few guys out there tonight and I was impressed with our performance.
A few of those combinations are coming together but we must remember these are just trials so we are continually working on these things, he added.
The Bulldogs started the match with the better field position with a number of attacking raids at the Dragons line but the home side managed to hold them out. It was in the 10th minute though where an ex-Dragon Josh Morris created an opportunity that was finished by Matt Utai in the north-western corner. Morris took the ball and carried into two defenders and managed to get a hand free to get the ball to Utai who crashed over. Hazem El-Masri converted from the sideline to take the lead out to 6-nil after 10 minutes.
It was then the Dragons turn with a number of penalties helping the red and whites get into an attacking position. It was in the 16th minute where Dapto junior Mathew Head put on a set play and Matt Cooper hit the ball at speed and went over 20m in from the western touchline. Jamie Soward had the kicking duties and converted to level the score at 6-all after 18 minutes.
An altercation between a number of players occurred in the 28th minute which showed no side was treating this match as a trial. The Bulldogs received the penalty and the Dragons muscled up in defence and a big hit on Ben Hannant from Cooper forced him to push the offload that ended up in the hands of Head. From there Head got into full stride before finding Renown junior Jason Nightingale who ran the remaining 60m to score under the posts. Soward converted to put the Dragons in front 12-6.
With five minutes remaining the Bulldogs again were attacking the Dragons line and this time it was Brett Kimmorley who was directing his side around the park. Kimmorley held the ball up with players moving around him and he found Ben Barba outside him who went straight through to score. On this occasion Michael Ennis converted to level the score at 12-all which it remained until half-time.
A number of changes took place at half-time with Dragons Coach Wayne Bennett resting Darius Boyd, Dean Young, Matt Cooper, Chase Stanley and Beau Scott with wholesale changes also taking place for the Bulldogs.
It only took two minutes for the match to open up with the Dragons having a Nightingale tried disallowed after Ben Creagh was called off-side from a Soward bomb. Immediately at the other end of the field the Bulldogs also had a try disallowed with a forward pass being ruled handing the Dragons possession 10m out from their own line.
The match continued to go from end to end but it was back to back penalties to the Dragons that gave them a set 10m out from the Bulldogs line. It was again Head who orchestrated the set and on the third tackle he got a call from Ricky Thorby for a flat ball and once received he strolled through to score under the posts in the 59th minute. Soward converted from in front to take the lead out to 18-12.
Again wholesale changes took place with a number of Toyota Cup players getting their chance. A high shot from Lee Te Maari again put the Dragons in an attacking position and centre Dean Whare popped a miraculous ball up for hooker Jamie Clarke to score. Soward again converted to extend the lead to two converted tries with 11 minutes remaining.
DRAGONS 24 (Cooper, Nightingale, Thorby, Clarke Tries; Soward 4 Goals) BULLDOGS 12 (Utai, Barba Tries; El Masri, Ennis Goals)
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