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What’s the opposite of playing for pride? That was the question as the Dragons met the Tigers for the chance not to finish last, with St George Illawarra winning the Spoonbowl 18-14 in a close-fought clash in Wollongong.
For all that this was the two worst teams in the comp – and by a distance, too – it was more than entertaining enough, with both sides clearly intent on knocking bells out of each other in an attempt to avoid the spoon.
That it was settled on goalkicking showed how tight the gap was, though Tim Sheens didn’t think his side was as close as they looked.
“We probably didn’t deserve to win it,” he said. “On the night, we shot ourselves in the foot a number of times which came back to bite us.
“Our options, our kicking game, putting into the fence a few times – it’s not good enough. We could have won that game tonight and it’s our own fault.”
There wasn’t much quality on display, which was to be expected, but there was plenty of feeling. Several flashpoints, centred, of course, around John Bateman, were testament to that.
There was another, too, from Mat Feagai that might have been more harshly punished than just a penalty at the time and might catch the eye of the Match Review Panel.
This might have been a Spoonbowl, but with the likes of Ben Hunt and Api Koroisau on display, there were still moments of quality.
A kick from the Dragons halfback to centre Zac Lomax to score and a try from the Tigers hooker were both standout moments in an exciting first half, as well as an excellent dart from Junior Amone to put Tyrell Sloan in.
Sloan was then binned for a professional foul, with Lomax again shifting to fullback, with the Tigers grabbing two quick ones before the break to take the lead.
The standard dropped badly in the second half, but the desperation never did. Just one try after the break and a raft of errors kept things tight, with St George Illawarra able to sneak it through Mikaele Rawalava, who to that point had been a liability, then injured and finally the hero. It was that kind of game.
“It was tough, gritty, we wouldn’t say die and found a way to fall over the line,” said interim coach Ryan Carr.
“We haven’t won a scrappy game like that in a long time here, so for the players to go out and feel what it’s like to win on the back of not being perfect, and we weren’t perfect, but did it on effort.
“To keep them to nil in the second half – it was a huge defensive performance.”
It’s an easy night to be distracted. The Women’s World Cup, the Ashes, the British Open…there was plenty of reasons to place your sporting attention elsewhere tonight.
Still, that’s something for the punters to consider. It shouldn’t be one for the players.
Not that anyone told Mikaele Ravalawa: the Fijian had one of the most bizarre defensive performances of the year, constantly jamming and continually missing, with opposing winger Junior Tupou unable to believe his luck.
On four occasions in the first half, Ravalawa jammed in for no reason at all. Three of them lead to tries, while the fourth might have had Tommy Talau taken a better option with the ball.
It was strange, strange stuff. It’s hard to recall a winger being hooked before, but he couldn’t have been far off.
Things got weirder yet. Ravalawa copped a nasty knee cork early in the second half, giving the Dragons the chance to take him off and save face, but did everything in their power to keep him on.
Stay on he did, hobbling, with yet another Talau and Tupou combination seeing him bypassed far too easily for a break.
Playing on given clear duress was a credit to the bloke, however, who even on an off-night showed up and kept showing up. Plenty would have taken the easy out, but Ravalawa never thought about it.
Finally, after some smart play from Lomax inside, he was able to get one back on the ledger with a characteristic short-range charge at the line.
It was somewhat ironic that it ended up being the winning try, given how all three Tigers’ scores were his fault, but the rugby league gods move in mysterious ways at times.
Supporting the Wests Tigers must be a chore at times. You get pummelled in the press for six days, then beaten on the field on the seventh. “It is shit, losing” was Bateman’s line in the press this week.
Amid the bluster, however, there’s green shoots about. The signings of the Fainu brothers and the extension of Api Koroisau are clearly good signs and on the field, it’s easy to see the green shoots.
Jahream Bula is a bona fide star, backed up again tonight. It’s hard to think that he’s only been around for three months. The kid could be anything.
Tupou, too, was brilliant on the wing. Though Rawalava made his job easy at times, the tries don’t score themselves and his composure to set up Koroisau belied his youth. His carries, too, showed why they think he can play back row.
Those two were numbers one and two in the metre chart, with Stefano Utoikamanu in fourth. He’s already the pack leader and will get better still.
It probably comes across as patronising to point out these things after yet another defeat, and one that condemns the Tigers to bottom for the second consecutive year.
But it’s not all doom and gloom at Concord. There’s plenty of reasons to think that this pallour will lift and things will get better sooner rather than later.