Sharks down Dragons in slippery local derby

Despite Ravalawa’s try double earning the visitors a halftime lead, a poor second half completion rate made life unnecessarily difficult for the Red V as they succumbed to the competition leaders.

The hosts found themselves in attacking field position early but the Dragons’ defence held strong thanks in large part to back-to-back Zac Lomax shutdown efforts.

With a trio of penalties and a pair of set restarts under their belt, the Sharks found first points through front rower Oregon Kaufusi with Nicho Hynes adding the extras to make it a six-point advantage 15 minutes in.

The opening quarter of the clash was defined largely by the ill-discipline of both sides with several penalties earning the visitors an opportunity to attack only for a poor last tackle option to hand possession back to the Sharks.

Liddle ignited the visitors’ attack soon after with a heads-up, dummy half scamper before Ben Hunt was denied a four-pointer after the video officials ruled that the Dragons skipper spilt it in the grounding attempt.

A Shark was ruled offside however gifting the Red V another set only for Hunt’s last tackle kick to cannon off the upright and make its way into defending arms.

The Dragons managed to crack the Sharks’ line after a prolonged period of pressure through Ravalawa who dove over in the right corner off a Hunt face ball to cut the deficit to two.

Ravalawa grabbed his second on the stroke of halftime with a sweeping Tyrell Sloan sending the Fijian international sliding over again in the right corner.

Lomax contended with a difficult breeze to slot the conversion from wide out and give the visitors a 10-6 edge heading into the break.

A desperate effort held a storming Siosifa Talakai up over the line in the opening exchanges of the second half before the Dragons lost their captain’s challenge on a knock-on call to put the hosts back on the attack.

Talakai’s second go at the stripe was awarded a try as the hosts regained the lead seven minutes into the second half.

The Dragons denied Talakai again soon after courtesy of some more desperate scramble with the Sharks losing their captain’s challenge in the process.

Jacob Liddle was taken from the field soon after for a HIA with Fa’amanu Brown inserted into the action before Tom Hazelton grabbed another for the hosts to extend their lead beyond a converted try entering the final 10.

Brown was taken from the field for a HIA in the aftermath forcing another reshuffle for the Red V with Kyle Flanagan shifting to hooker before Liddle re-entered play upon passing his assessment.

Hynes put over a late penalty goal as the hosts held on for a 20-10 win in wet conditions.