Dragons flex muscles with Rabbitohs thrashing

The St George Illawarra Dragons have today flexed their potentially premiership muscles with a majestic 44-14 victory over a hapless South Sydney outfit at the Rabbitohs’ new home of Telstra Stadium.

South Sydney started the stronger of the two sides, and had an 8-6 lead after half an hour of play and it looked as though we were to be treated to a close one after Nathan Merritt’s 28th minute try.

But the Dragons came up with three blows, the third being the knockout one, in the 10 minute period leading into halftime.

Daryl Millard, playing in just his second career game was the first of those try-scorers after a beautiful pass from captain Trent Barrett, and subsequent four-pointers to Aaron Gorrell and Colin Best ensured the Dragons weren’t going to let this one slip through their fingers and went in with a match-securing 26-8 lead at the break.

The Dragons kept the foot on the accelerator after halftime. Mark Gasnier crossed for the first of his three tries this afternoon just three minutes into the second half, and at that stage it was quite obvious that the Dragons were about to claim their first win in season 2006.

The match hit a lull somewhat midway through the second half, with both sides producing a comedy of errors. Gasnier came back to the party late in the match with two late tries to turn change the status of the victory from comprehensive to blowout.

Nathan Merritt scored a consolation try for Souths right on the fulltime hooter, however the Dragons ran out convincing winners.

South Sydney will be disappointed with the way things went pear-shaped from the 30th minute onwards.

Their position is not improved with the news that Stuart Webb, Yileen Gordon, and Manase Manuokafoa have all been placed on report.

And looking at all three of those incidents, things don’t look good for those players on the judiciary front.

They meet the Sharks at Toyota Park next Saturday afternoon.

St George Illawarra put in a more impressive performance in attack today, coming away with their first victory in 2006.

Good news and bad to come out of this one for the Dragons, Ben Creagh and Matt Cooper are poised for a return next week in their clash with the Broncos at WIN Stadium next Sunday.

But unfortunately for the Dragons, Jason Ryles has a suspected broken hand and more news will come out of that prospect during the week.

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