By Martin Gabor, NRL.com National Correspondent
The St George Illawarra Dragons have been leapfrogged by the Sharks into second place on the Holden Cup ladder courtesy of a comfortable 36-14 win at UOW Jubilee Oval.
It took just two minutes for the Sharks to get on the board with Kyle Flanagan playing short to send Isaac Lumelume over for the first try of the afternoon before Will Kennedy collected a deflected kick to make it 12-0 in the blink of an eye.
The Dragons worked their way back into the contest and should have pegged one back when some brilliant work out of dummy-half created an overlap on the left edge that came unstuck when Zach Lomax dummied with an unmarked teammate on his outside.
A rather placid first half came to life in the 40th minute with both teams coming together to exchange pleasantries, and while they received the penalty, the Dragons were unable to convert the shot at goal to trail 12-0 at the break.
Whatever Wayne Collins said at the interval fired his troops up in a big way as they halved the gap from the opening set of the second half with cult hero TJ Uele charging 50 metres to score the sort of try props only dream about.
Their momentum didn't last long though as Blayke Brailey turned Briton Nikora back inside to score before the talented No.9 grubbered through to set up Kyle Flanagan for the clincher.
The Dragons threatened a fightback when winger Matheson Johns latched onto a grubber with 10 minutes to play, but it proved mere consolation as the Sharks raced in a couple of late tries to boost their points differential.
Sharks 36 (Isaac Lumelume, Will Kennedy, Briton Nikora, Kyle Flanagan, Billy Magoulias, Johnathan Tufuga tries; Kyle Flanagan 6 goals) defeated Dragons 14 (TJ Uele, Matheson Johns, Trent Peoples tries; Zach Lomax 1 goal) at UOW Jubilee Oval, Kogarah. Half-time: 12-0
