Martin Gabor, NRL.com National Correspondent
The NYC St George Illawarra Dragons side have suffered a 38-4 loss to the Sharks at Southern Cross Group Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It didn't take long for the Sharks to open the scoring with Blayke Brailey turning a ball back inside for a charging Jesse Ramien to cross inside three minutes.
The home side moved further ahead in the 10th minute when back-rower Ryan King somehow found his way to the line despite being held by four Dragons defenders.
The visitors almost hit back through Tristan Sailor, only for the winger-turned-fullback to be held up over the line by some desperate Sharks defence, and he was soon followed by No.9 Reece Robson who couldn't fight through Cronulla's brick wall.
Cronulla were reduced to 12 men on the half-hour mark when edge forward Briton Nikora was sent to the sin bin for throwing a punch in a scuffle behind the play but the Dragons couldn't capitalise with the numerical advantage.
The second half started much like the first 40 did with Brailey weaving his magic close to the ruck to send King over for his second of the afternoon to make it 16-0.
The first-half flashbacks continued shortly after when Ramien did it all himself from a scrum to bag his double to push the lead out to 22 points before the centre crashed through some feeble defence to complete his hat-trick in the 55th minute.
Nikora made up for his earlier indiscretion to power over for his side's sixth try of the day before Matheson Johns dived over late to get the Dragons on the board.
The hosts would have the final say as Tony Matautia barged over to ice the 34-point win.
Sharks 38 (Jesse Ramien 3, Ryan King 2, Briton Nikora, Toy Matautia tries; Kyle Flanagan 5 goals) defeated Dragons 4 (Matheson Johns try) at Southern Cross Group Stadium. Half-time: 12-0.
This article first appeared on NRL.com
