Widdop stars as Dragons run roughshod over Titans
Local Sport
HAT-TRICK MAN: The Dragons celebrate the first of three tries to Matt Dufty on Sunday. Picture: AAP
DRAGONS skipper Gareth Widdop is not prone to exaggeration, but suggesting things are “slowly coming together” following his side’s 54-8 demolition of Gold Coast at Toowoomba on Sunday was an understatement – even for him.
Especially given his own performance that saw him score a try and lay on five others for a personal tally of 22 points.
After the toughest night of his young NRL career against Cronulla last week, Matt Dufty showed why he’s stoked the fires of excitement among the red v faithful with a hat-trick, while centre Tim Lafai also had three tries, but it was undoubtedly Widdop’s show.
The England International laid on three tries off his right boot, while Lafai and Nene Macdonald both had their skipper to thank for their second-half four-pointers.
Widdop also got across himself, with halves partner Ben Hunt providing the assist by way of a well-placed kick, to effectively put the result to bed midway through the second half. It was the Dragons third straight win to start the season – the first time the club has done so since 2014.
It was undoubtedly their best win of 2018, and possibly the most impressive of Paul McGregor’s tenure, with the club’s new-look spine looking anything but new.
“I like to think we’ve done enough work in the preseason,” Widdop said post-match.
“We’ve only had a limited time [together] but we’ve done a hell of a lot of work and it’s slowly coming together. I think a lot of things stuck today which was great.
“When you bring in a halfback who’s, I suppose, a traditional halfback it frees myself a little bit. Ben’s a good ball-runner as well so I think, myself, Ben, Duft… the more we’re linking, the more we’re playing together, we’re less predictable.
“That’s what we’ve been working on and we’re enjoying it at the moment. Last week we were a bit off with that, but we worked hard during the week and we managed to put on a few points.
"The more we play together, the better we’ll become. We know it’s still early, it’s only round three, but we’ll certainly take some confidence out of the last few weeks and move forward from this now.”
It proved a homecoming to forget for Titans star Ash Taylor. The Toowoomba product laid on his side’s only try for Michael Gordon in the 10th minute before putting two restarts out on the full and ending up on report for tripping midway through the second half.
Thing started awfully for the hosts, with Kane Elgey spilling the opening kickoff and allowing Dufty to stroll across untouched for the first try three plays later.
Widdop added a penalty goal six minutes later before Gordon crossed from a deft short-ball from Taylor and converted his own try to bring his side back within two after 10 minutes.
He leveled things up with a penalty goal of his own six minutes later but it was Widdop’s second penalty goal in the 26th minute that really proved the turning point.
Taylor put the ensuing kickoff dead on the full with Lafai scoring his first try in the very next set and setting in motion a 14 minute blitz that saw he and Dufty bag their respective doubles by halftime.
The hosts had a glimmer of hope when Dufty spilled a bomb five minutes after the resumption, with de Belin sin-binned for a professional foul in the scramble that followed.
The Titans couldn’t make the Dragons pay with Taylor again overcooking a restart after Widdop’s 48th minute penalty goal. It saw Macdonald add further weight to his credentials as one of the classiest finishers in the business with his 51st minute four-pointer.
De Belin returned to put Hunt into space, with the former Broncos half chipping ahead for Widdop to regather and extend the margin to 28 points with 23 minutes to play.
Widdop laid on his side’s final three tries off his boot, the first for Paul Vaughan deflecting off the upright and sitting up perfectly for the NSW hopeful, the second putting Dufty away for his hat-trick and the third seeing Lafai notch his treble in the shadows of fulltime.
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