Dolphins slay dreadful Dragons

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Dolphins v St George Illawarra Dragons

The Dolphins have recorded their biggest ever win, thrashing St George-Illawarra by 56-6 tonight at Suncorp Stadium.

Redcliffe were superb from start to finish, led by a masterful performance from halfback Isaiya Katoa who was everywhere for the home side, having a hand in several tries and kicking a 40/20 in the second half to grind the Dragons into the dirt.  

The Phins ran in ten tries, which included doubles to Jamayne Isaako, Herbie Farnworth, Connelly Lemuelu and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow in a scintillating performance from Kristian Woolf's team.

The Dragons were simply awful and just could not stem the bleeding. An injury to winger Christian Tuipolutu, who only just returned from a hamstring injury seemed to cause havoc with their interchange rotation. This saw Damien Cook move to the centres and took a lot of their spark around the ruck. Regardless there are no excuses for letting in that many tries.  

The Dolphins came into their clash with St George as warm favourites, but following back-to-back penalties in the opening minutes saw Valentine Holmes kick a penalty goal to give his side an early 2-0 lead.

Redcliffe managed to hit back through blockbusting centre Herbie Farnworth, who used his speed to crash over for a try in the corner for the first try of the night.

The Dolphins then took momentum when some quick hands from the Dolphins backline and a brilliant finish from Jamayne Isaako saw a second try for the home side in just five minutes.

The home side continued to dominate the match when they raced in two further tries to Kodi Nikorima who shimmied his way through the Dragons defence to score under the posts and Connelly Lemuelu who leapt high over Clint Gutherson to score a great try and give his side a commanding 22-2 lead.

Then nearing halftime, it was winger Jack Bostock who flew high to collect a Kodi Nikorima kick to score a spectacular try and give Redcliffe a dominant 28-2 lead at halftime.

The Dolphins continued where they left off after the break and Lemuelu had his second try after collecting a great offload from Katoa.

The Dolphins continued to put the foot down, with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow getting in on the act, which was follow up by a second try to Jamayne Isaako.

Kodi Nikorima then put Jack Bostock away down the wing, which saw Tabuai-Fidow loom up in support to get his second and take the Dolphins to 50 points for the first time in their history.

St George-Illawarra then finally got their first try through Valentine Holmes for a late consolation try which failed to create a cheer from the away supporter bay given the dire scoreline.  

The Dolphins then put an exclamation mark on the win, when Herbie Farnworth finished off the game in style racing away to score his second try of the night to celebrate a huge night for the club.

The Dolphins now travel to Townsville next Saturday where they will face an Origin impacted Cowboys. St George Illawarra will need to re-group quickly for a local derby with the Cronulla Sharks in the Shire on Thursday night.