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A second half sin-binning of ex-Canberra bad boy Josh Dugan wasn’t enough to stop St George Illawarra pulling off a late 22-20 NRL win over the Raiders on Saturday at GIO Stadium.
The Raiders were always wary of an ex-player costing them a win, but they never suspected it would end up being Joel Thompson who scored the match-winner.
Dugan’s decision to knock the ball out of Jarrod Croker’s hands as the Raiders’ captain was running back from the dead ball for a quick 20m restart proved to be a crucial turning point in a game that fulfilled the “two halves” cliche to perfection.
Having already reduced the deficit to eight points after being 18-0 down early, the Dragons were flying home with a wet sail.
But Dugan’s sin-binning in his 100th NRL match gave the Raiders a much-needed reprieve, and most of the 11,774 crowd were all too happy to jeer him off the field.
That showed just how much Raiders fans still feel betrayed by Dugan, who was sacked from the club in 2013 after a string of off-field offences – only to come back a year later and spearhead the Dragons to breaking a 14-year hoodoo in Canberra.
England international Josh Hodgson made the most of some early Raiders possession to open the scoring in the ninth minute.
The Raiders kept the pressure on, completing their eighth of nine sets when Mitch Cornish gave Sia Soliola a short ball close to the line to extend the lead to 12-0.
The Dragons, on the other hand, had completed just three of their first seven sets when Raiders five-eighth Blake Austin glided through the defence from a scrum in the 20th minute.
Austin could almost do no wrong and was only denied a second try 10 minutes later due to the NRL’s latest barbecue stopper – the double movement.
The reprieve allowed Trent Merrin to keep the Dragons in the game with a try, which was followed by a penalty on the stroke of halftime to reduce the deficit to an undeserved 18-8.
That momentum stayed with the Dragons after halftime, their improved completion rate leading to Jason Nightingale scoring acrobatically in the corner.
Dugan came back on the field with 15 minutes to go to even the numbers and the Dragons again gained ascendancy.
Hooker Mitch Rein and Thompson scored to gain the lead with five minutes to go, giving the Dragons their first win of the season.
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