Sharks erase first-half nightmares to cement top eight spot

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Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v St George Illawarra Dragons

Despite trailing 18-6 at half-time, the Cronulla Sharks have come from behind to defeat the St George Illawarra Dragons by 30-18 at Sharks Stadium tonight.

After being denied mere moments before, Blayke Brailey continued his strong start to the game when he schemed out of dummy half. The back-to-back Monty Porter Medallist burst through the markers before finding Braydon Trindall to score the first try of the contest after nine minutes.

Five minutes later, some nice second phase play from Damien Cook saw Emre Guler attract several defenders. A late offload saw Cook into space and some nifty-stepping from the beach sprinter had way too much pace for the poor Sharks defence to get the visitors back on level terms.

After some inconsistency in the opposition 20 with some poor attacking options from both sides. The visitors stunned the loyal crowd at Sharks Stadium when young half Lyhkan King-Togia took matters into his own hands with a great solo effort to give the visitors the lead.

Some more poor attacking footy from the Sharks led to a complete change in momentum. A Nicho Hynes error gave Clint Gutherson a clean break down field before Jesse Ramien hung on for too long and was sin-binned. St George immediately capitalised on the extra-man advantage and went down the right edge. It was some nice deception from Kyle Flanagan, which fooled the defence and Jack de Belin crashed across to make it 18-6 at the break.

The Sharks looked to open the scoring to start the second half when Sione Katoa claimed a try. But there was terrific scramble from the Dragons to deny the try. Cronulla eventually cracked the Dragons line when they made the visitors pay for a high tackle penalty. Braydon Trindall went deep into the line to find Briton Nikora who crashes over several defenders to score for the hosts in his 150th game eight minutes after the resumption.

The Dragons hit the self-destruct the button with 25 to play as Trindall's bomb wasn't defused by Gutherson and Sloan. The race for the ball saw the five-eighth get their first to get a double. From the next set, a bomb was spilled by Nathan Lawson and the Sharks immediately went on the attack and had them shot to bits. Sione Katoa got on the outside of Moses Suli to slam it down, giving the Sharks the lead. Hynes added a penalty goal to give the Sharks a 6-point lead.

The Dragons tried a trick play at the end of the game with King-Togia chipping over the top, he tried to toe it forward but Katoa was on the spot to scoop it up. The visitors then over pursued the chase and the winger raced away for his second try and seal the derby win.