Warriors seal stunning comeback win over Dragons

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Warriors v St George Illawarra Dragons

The Dragons have surrendered another half-time lead, conceding 20 unanswered points as the Warriors surged home to take a 26-18 win on Saturday night. 

New recruit Kodi Nikorima showed positive signs at five-eighth, combining well with Blake Green who was handed full control of the kicking duties. 

Jai Field was also electric filling in for Corey Norman (cheekbone), outpacing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in one of the Dragons' three first-half tries. 

But it wouldn't be enough as the Warriors re-ignited their season, claiming their third win of the year. 

Despite a positive start, Stephen Kearney's men quickly found themselves on the backfoot when they conceded two tries in three minutes.

The first came when Tyson Frizell collected a Ben Hunt bomb and offloaded to send Zac Lomax over. 

James Graham then put Paul Vaughan steaming through the middle off a short ball and the prop quickly linked with Jai Field, the exciting youngster racing away to score.  

The Warriors responded when Agnatius Paasi barged over for a soft try in the 13th minute. 

A Lomax penalty goal five minutes later saw the Red V push their lead out to six before Cameron McInnes scooted out of dummy-half to push past Nathaniel Roache and Paasi and score.

Despite appearing in control, leading 18-6 at the break, Dragons fans knew all too well that Saturday's game was far from over after their side bottled a 14-point lead against Parramatta the week prior. 

And the early signs in the second half were not good, Peta Hiku slicing over in the left edge in the 46th minute after feigning to offload.

The game remained in the balance for the next 15 minutes and eventually it was the hosts who locked things up, David Fusitua flying over in the corner. 

The Dragons looked to have regained momentum when Hunt forced a repeat set but he fumbled the ball off the dropout.

And it proved a costly error as Maumalo went over to hand New Zealand the lead for the first time. 

Karl Lawton then broke through the middle in the dying stages of the match to hand the Warriors one final chance to strike and they did just that, a no-look pass from Kodi Nikorima seeing Hiku score to seal the win. 

The New Zealanders will look to build on the victory when they face the struggling Panthers next Friday. Meanwhile, the Dragons will be aiming to snap a three-game losing streak against the Knights at Mudgee.