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Penrith coach Matthew Elliott was left fuming but it was St George Illawarra centre Mark Gasnier feeling the pain after suffering a back injury in the Dragons’ ugly 13-12 NRL victory at ANZ Stadium tonight.
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Gasnier’s Origin III hopes were thrown up in the air after the Test ace ran up the tunnel clutching his back after the fulltime siren to take the gloss of the Dragons’ first five-match winning streak since 2006.
“I’ll have some scans on Monday, I’d be guessing if I thought how bad it was going to be,” said Gasnier, who revealed the injury flared during training yesterday, claiming he was a virtual passenger against the Panthers.
Elliott was seeing red after several crucial penalty calls went against his side late in the game, the Dragons taking advantage with Jamie Soward booting a 72nd minute field goal.
But it was the penalty that didn’t get blown that really got under the skin of the Panthers coach.
“We got penalised over in the corner for Frank Pritchard hitting Mark Gasnier in the hand and at the end of the game in front of the sticks Junior Moors got hit straight around the eyeballs and he didn’t make a call,” Elliott said.
“He doesn’t make a call, how does that happen? I don’t know.
“I’m frustrated … I lost it in the box tonight and I feel that I had friends that lost it as well this evening.”
To say the red and whites were lucky would be an understatement, two tries in the blink of an eye just after halftime turning the game after the Dragons went to the break down 12-0.
In the space of three minutes the game turned, the Dragons going back-to-back to lock up the scores against a Penrith side which suddenly looked like it had run out of gas.
St George Illawarra’s first try came via a terrific Ben Creagh run, Jarrod Sammut given no chance of stopping the runaway train as Creagh slammed the ball over the line.
Sammut was again caught out by a Soward chip kick from inside his own half, the headgeared No.6 regathering before finding Josh Morris.
Jason Nightingale knocked on from the kick-off but the Panthers had run out of legs and on the back of a string of dubious penalties the Dragons marched downfield.
Showing a lack of killer instinct the Dragons went for a sideline penalty goal and a 68th minute field goal in a bid to break the deadlock, Soward making amends with his second attempt at the one-pointer four minutes later.
“We definitely would have lost it at the start of the year,” Brown said of his side’s recent turnaround in fortunes.
“Everyone would acknowledge that we’re definitely hanging in there better and playing a lot tougher.
“It wasn’t by any means our greatest performance … we just found a way to get to the front and then hang on.”
Rhys Wesser opened the scoring after seven minutes when he backed up a bust from Panthers backrower Trent Waterhouse, but unfortunately for the visitors Wesser made his way up the tunnel shortly after, his night over due to an abdominal tear.
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