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St George Illawarra showed little hint of an NRL premiership hangover as they dusted off the cobwebs and South Sydney to reclaim the Charity Shield with a 32-10 win at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night.
Opening their 2011 campaign at the scene of their drought-breaking triumph last October, the Dragons made light work of a Rabbitohs side missing a host of big names as they warmed up for the World Club Challenge against Super League champions Wigan later this month.
In an ominous sign for Wigan and the Dragons’ NRL rivals, the red and whites too were below full strength – first-choice halves Ben Hornby and Jamie Soward as well as hooker Dean Young all sitting out the clash.
They hardly missed a beat – Bronx Goodwin making the most of an opportunity at fullback following Darius Boyd’s shift to five-eighth with two tries in a 16-point haul.
Unheralded backrower Jack Bosden may have booked himself a seat on the plane for the DW Stadium clash on February 27 with a barnstorming display.
The Bunnies were rewarded for their early dominance when a Chris Sandow long ball found Kane Morgan unmarked out wide, with the Dragons giving their opponents plenty of opportunity to build on their lead with a series of errors.
It took the premiers until the 17th minute to get into the Rabbitohs’ 20 metre zone, but they took the lead when they finally did so with Bosden breaking through some woeful defence his side of halfway to put Goodwin away for his first.
Sandow rattled Nathan Fien with a trademark shoulder charge and John Sutton scampered downfield following a bust from dummy half, but the Bunnies couldn’t quite get it to click.
The Dragons, and in particular Bosden, were flying – the former Cronulla junior running through Ben Lowe to make it 12-4 after George Burgess helped push his initial attempt at scoring onto the tryline.
Goodwin’s second from a delicately worked set play had the Dragons up 18-4 at the break, and there was no let-up from stand-in coach Steve Price who removed only Matt Cooper for the second stanza.
Dylan Farrell stemmed the tide with a try from a Sandow kick shortly after the restart, but two tries in as many minutes to Boyd and Peni Tagive – the latter on the back of some great lead-up work from new buy Adam Cuthbertson and Mark Gasnier – saw the Dragons kick away.
Both sides emptied their benches late with Dragons prop Michael Greenfield crossing for a four-pointer against his former club.
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