ROUND-UP
MIKAELE RAVALAWA’S 64th-minute try lifted ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS over WESTS TIGERS in a Thursday battle of the NRL’s cellar dwellers.
The Fijian winger scored the only try of the second half courtesy of an audacious Zac Lomax offload, as the Dragons overcame a brace by Junior Tupou and the sinbinning of Tyrell Sloan before the break.
The gritty win - just Saints’ fifth of 2023 - takes them two wins clear of the lastplaced Tigers, who’ve now lost their last seven matches.
Saints veterans Ben Hunt and Lomax were crucial for the victors.
Tupou shrugged off three Red V jumpers in the tenth minute to claim the opener.
But the hosts quickly seized the ascendency, when Talatau Amone danced through Wests’ line to hand Sloan four points and Hunt kicked expertly to Lomax.
Referee Ben Cummins perhaps harshly binned Sloan for holding down Daine Laurie in a tackle - and the Tigers capitalised on their numerical advantage twice before half-time, first through Tupou then captain Api Koroisau, who was spectacularly assisted by a Tupou kick.
Trailing by two points at the break, the Dragons huffed and puffed until tensions boiled over into a fracas on the hour mark.
But Lomax’s stunning offload to Ravalawa secured St George Illawarra’s triumph.
SHAUN JOHNSON’S golden-point field goal clinched New Zealand WARRIORS’ heart-stopping win over plucky CANBERRA RAIDERS.
Canberra scored two tries in the final 70 seconds of regular time to miraculously level the scores, but captain Jarrod Croker missed his after-the-siren conversion attempt from the sideline that would have completed the heist.