Panthers v Broncos preview
3 hours ago | Rhys Sullivan
St. George Illawarra have produced a first-half masterclass to account for the last-placed Newcastle Knights, holding out the likely spooners in the second to record a 30-18 win in front of 13,777 at Hunter Stadium this afternoon.
Hot favourites coming into the first edition of the Alex McKinnon Cup for 2016, the Dragons dominated the match early, troubling the Novocastrian's scorers early with a try to Kalifa Faifai Loa in the 2nd minute. Rookie Jacob Host was next to add his name to the list in the 8th before the Dragons ended up 14-0 ahead in the 15th minute, Euan Aitken becoming the third Dragon to wreak havoc on the Knights' awful left side defence.
The Knights were able to settle things for the following 15 minutes, eventually crossing with one of the most entertaining tries in recent memory, when winger Nathan Ross launched himself into the air from 3 metres out to score an incredible acrobatic try at the half-hour mark. Hodkinson converted to reduce the margin to eight.
Realising points were vital to get themselves a comfortable halftime lead, the Dragons took things up a notch after the Ross try, with Tim Lafai scoring in the 36th before a Benji Marshall show and go (together with some awful defence) put the visitors ahead 22-6 at the break - a scoreline that could've been even greater had Gareth Widdop's wayward goalkicking radar been in-sync.
The Dragons continued the onslaught after the halftime resumption, Joel Thompson scoring just a minute after being involved in an altercation with new Newcastle signing Brendan Elliot. Leading 28-6 it was the Red V's game to lose... and many of their fans were concerned about just that as the Knights started to trouble the scorers in the final fifteen minutes. Tries to Sione Mata'utia (64th) and Mitchell Barnett (73rd) had the home fans believing in miracles, but ultimately their lack of execution proved their undoing, despite ultimately dominating the second half, and in particular the closing moments.
It would be Gareth Widdop who put a cherry on top of a much needed win for the Dragons - a final minute penalty goal pushing the score to 30-18 at fulltime - a scoreline which is also the Dragons biggest this year after previously only scoring a maximum of 24 points in a match.
Next week the Dragons are off to Brookvale on Monday night to face the struggling Sea Eagles, while the Knights will want the long-sleeves out when they head to Canberra next Sunday.
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