Dragons heat worse than the Sharks bite

v BYE

Sunday afternoon footy went to Shark Park for a physical affair that saw the Cronulla Sharks beat their local rivals the St George Illawarra Dragons by 30-2 in front of just under 18,000 fans at the newly named Southern Cross Stadium.

The opening  40 minutes was a story of four quarters inside the opening half with the Dragons dominating the opening 10 minutes before it evening out then over the end of the first half the Sharks took control.

The first points came after a questionable decision by the Dragons to take the penalty goal attempt after Sosaia Feki received his marching orders to head to the sin bin for ten minutes after a professional foul, that was the Dragons only points for the match.

The Sharks then went on an 11 minute burst of points when they first levelled the score through a penalty goal then in a 7 minute burst of three tries to Ben Barba, Valentine Holmes and Chad Townsend on the stroke of half time with two of the three converted by James Maloney to take the score out to 18-2 in the second half.

The second half was something that Kurt Mann would want to forget with the Dragons fullback making an absolute mess of the ball on plenty of occasions however the Sharks only crossed the line twice in the second half with tries coming to Jayson Bukuya and Ricky Leutele as well as a conversion and penalty goal from James Maloney to seal the 30-2 victory.

The Sharks get an 8 day turn around as they take on Manly next Monday night at Brookvale Oval whilst the Dragons don't get things any easier when they take on the South Sydney Rabbitohs next Sunday afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground.