St George Illawarra added to Manly’s early-season woes with a 12-4 win over the struggling Sea Eagles on Saturday in Wollongong.
In a game that never really reached any real heights in terms of entertainment, the Dragons laid the platform for their victory with 10 unanswered first-half points in front of a crowd of 12,087.
With the defeat, the Sea Eagles slump to their third defeat in four games – the club’s worst start to a season since 2009.
Their misery was also compounded by injuries to Jamie Lyon (groin), Feleti Mateo (knee), Josh Starling (knee) and Daly Cherry-Evans (concussion) who were all forced to the sidelines in the second half.
Geoff Toovey’s side struggled badly in the opening stanza, completing just eight sets, as the Dragons bucked the trend of their past three games when they had struggled to score points before halftime.
Gareth Widdop’s early penalty was the first time the Dragons had troubled the scorers in the first 20 minutes this season and a Jason Nightingale try increased their advantage with a typically smart finish in the left corner.
Despite their dominance, the Dragons had only another Widdop penalty to show for their efforts as they went in at halftime with a 10-0 lead.
The Sea Eagles started brightly in the second period with Cherry-Evans, despite his left leg being heavily strapped, becoming more influential.
However, handling errors continued to blight both teams, who each coughed the ball up on 24 occasions between them to stifle any real shift in momentum.
Brayden Williame did finally get the visitors on the board on the hour-mark when he had the final touch from a Kieran Foran grubber-kick after former Manly hooker Heath L’Estrange dropped the ball deep in his own half.
A huge 40-20 kick from Cherry-Evans alleviated some heavy pressure from the hosts but Luke Burgess spilled the ball on the fifth tackle as the Dragons’ defence held firm.
A third Widdop penalty late in the game iced the win for Paul McGregor’s side who move to 2-2 for the campaign after last week’s come-from-behind win in Canberra.
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