Titans ill-disciplined as Dragons start with a bang

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St George Illawarra Dragons v Gold Coast Titans

The St George Illawarra Dragons have started the NRLW season in perfect fashion with a 26-12 victory over the Gold Coast Titans who struggled with their ball control at WIN Stadium.

The early dominance was with the Dragons early on as poor ball control and ill-discipline saw the Titans put themselves under pressure and the Red ‘V' opened the scoring after ten minutes via a Rachael Pearson penalty goal. It was only a matter of minutes later when the Dragons were able to score when Emma Tonegato picked up from where she left off as Kezie Apps showed her class when she opened space up for the Dragons to shift left and Talei Holmes put Emma Tonegato through.

Pressure continued to build on the Titans as more errors put the pressure on and this time they looked to shift right and it was Emma Tonegato again who had her hand in the pie when her pass found Andie Robinson on the outside who scored in the corner.

Play wasn't fluid for the Dragons try but footwork in just about every direction from Taliah Fuimaono put the Titans defence in all sorts as she was able to go through a gap before finding Teagan Berry to score.

Veteran Steph Hancock made sure that the Titans had something on the board when she was able to charge into the line and get the ball to ground. Lauren Brown's conversion was good from close range to close the score at 18-6.

The discipline of the Titans didn't improve at all and they continued put themselves under the pressure but they were saved twice by the Bunker who overturned two tries given on the field with one disallowed for an obstruction and one for a knock-on.

Eventually the Dragons were able to cross in the second half when Teagan Berry was sweating on an intercept and it came with the Dragons speedster running 95m to score.

The Titans will need to work on their right-hand defence as the Dragons continued their field day down that side when Page McGregor was able to score after a beautiful pass from Keeley Davis put the centre into space to score.

Just as she did in the first half, Steph Hancock finished off the half with a try when she was able to use her strength and experience to fight her way to the line and slam the ball down.

Next weekend, the Dragons head to Parramatta for a clash with the Eels on Sunday afternoon whilst the Titans will play host to the Knights on the Gold Coast.