Round 18
Dragons 38 d. Rabbitohs 28

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Dragons survive Rabbitohs scare to move into 2nd
Sun July 9, 2006
St George Illawarra now sit in outright second position after struggling to overcome South Sydney running out eventual winners 38-28 with the scores at one stage being locked up at 22-all.

It all appeared to be easy work for the Dragons in the opening ten minutes with Josh Morris and Mark Gasnier crossing for tries with Aaron Gorrell landing one goal for an early 10-0 lead.

Souths fought back with two tries in the space of four minutes to Nathan Merritt and John Sutton leveled up the scores.

Both sides exchanged tries with Clint Greenshields scoring in the 32nd minutes and Stuart Webb replying four minutes later. Both tries were converted and the scores were locked up heading into half-time where Daryl Millard provided a crucial strike in the match with an important try. Gorrell landed his third conversion for the Dragons to lead 22-16 at the break.

The Millard try wasn't a major setback for Souths with Paul Mellor crossing seven minutes into the second half to once again level up the scores.

St George Illawarra however had too much class with three tries in the spate of 12 minutes to Charlie Leaeno, a second to Gasnier and Matt Cooper pushing the result beyond doubt.

John Sutton scored late in the match to give Souths a glimmer of hope but it was hope at the kindest as they lacked the class and ability to stage any late miracles.

Dragons coach Nathan Brown said, "Our attitude in defence has been great over the last six weeks.

"Today we were very stand offish on some of their key players, which was a result of our poor attitude and they have some very attractive players, so we were lucky."

Dragons captain Ben Hornby said, "It's just an attitude thing for us.

"If we had of turned up today, we would have won a lot easier, but we are really not happy after today and all the boys are really looking forward to next week."

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