The St George Illawarra Dragons have charged into the top eight with a commanding 32-16 victory over the Gold Coast Titans, spoiling Kieran Foran's 300th match at WIN Stadium.
The Dragons started very poorly with a poor kick chase allowing one of the game's most damaging kick returners to find open space. Keano Kini got through a poor tackle from Jacob Liddle, and he found Jojo Fifita to score under the posts for the opening try.
St George was able to capitalise relatively quickly on a Titans error. The Dragons went 90 metres from the counterattack and got their first try. A well-worked set move down the left edge saw a magnificent tip-on pass from Tyrell Sloan and Christian Tuipulotu had just enough pace to beat Phillip Sami to cross.
The home side went back-to-back after the Titans kick-off caught the wind and Luciano Leilua capitalised on the over-chase and got to within 20 metres of the Titans line. The visitors couldn't hold and Ben Hunt threw a dummy, fooled Jayden Campbell and put the home side in front by four points.
The game continued to develop as both sides failed to grab the ascendancy required to dominate proceedings. However, just shy of the half-hour mark, the Titans committed a cardinal sin. Brian Kelly was pinned for shoving Jaydn Su'A whilst in possession. From that set, Hunt got try-assist number 30 with a brilliant pass to Lomax. The Titans defence were on different islands and the NSW winger flies across in the right corner to make it a two-possession game.
Before the break, the Dragons again capitalised on some poor Titans defence. Liddle went down the hay diddle diddle, he got the pass away to Toby Couchman and despite Jayden Campbell's efforts, he got it down to make it 20-6. The late stages of the opening half became the Couchman show after a brilliant offload from Ryan Couchman to Leilua enabled him to score as the Dragons inflicted a hammer blow on the Titans on the half-time break.
Gold Coast started better in the second half and crossed for the opening try of the second half. A Foran pass in game 300 was initially lost by Campbell but it was negated by a kick before the ball hit the ground, Campbell chased through and score. The conversion reduced the gap to 14. Momentum appeared to be turning as Jack De Belin earned himself a trip to the sin-bin for a late shot to the head of Kieran Foran. However, the Titans attack which has been great at times this season sputtered and failed to capitalise on the extra man advantage.
Gold Coast capitalised on their dominance of field position with the breeze at their back to keep the game competitive in the dying moments of the second half. A wonderful rainbow ball from Foran found Fifita on the fly and the winger crossed for his double to keep the Titans in it.
At the end of the match, the Dragons finally got some field position and capitalised to secure victory. A brilliant run from Liddle out of dummy half saw Francis Molo try a similar strategy. The referee had to squat and manoeuvre himself to see it on the line but the try was confirmed to give the Dragons a victory that gets them back in the eight.