Jersey Flegg: Dragons run riot to down Wests Tigers

The Dragons got off to a superb start with David Afu and Lyric Craft-Te Moananui linking up for opening points with the former hitting the latter with a sublime flick pass to score.

Kade Reed nailed the conversion from the left touchline to make it 6-0.

The duo went close to making it two in as many sets off a dropped but were ruled to have taken out a Wests Tiger in the air.

The hosts took full advantage of the penalty going down the other and responding through Max Taotua who poured through a hole to dive over.

The Dragons’ enterprising start with the ball continued soon after with Craft-Te Moananui again finishing things off in the left corner to make it 10-6.

Toby Rumble sped into space down the opposite flank the previous play and kicked it infield for a supporting Reed who did a spectacular job to hold onto the ball.

Cyrus Stanley-Traill came up with an offload to keep the ball alive and move it out to Craft-Te Moananui who dove over.

An error off the corresponding kick-off gifted the hosts a golden opportunity with Solomone Saukuru strolling over off the scrum win to give the Wests Tigers their first lead.

Charlie Heidke went within inches of answering for the Red V off a Reed grubber but was ruled to have lost the ball in-goal.

The visitors wrestled the lead back 10 minutes short of the break with Craft-Te Moananui again finding himself in the thick of things knocking a Reed back to a chasing Jared Johnson who crossed next to the sticks.

The Dragons marched downfield the following set to extend their edge further with Reed playing short to Stanley-Traill who powered his way over.

It was more of the same for the Red V prior to the break as they made it three tries in as many sets.

Johnson crashed over for his second in near identical fashion to his first with Craft-Te Moananui finding him on the inside after going aerial to gather in a Reed bomb.

The first points of the second stanza belonged to the Wests Tigers with Saukuru muscling his way over in the left corner for his second as the deficit was cut back to 10.

Saukuru went in search of a third the Wests Tigers’ next set but was whistled for a forward pass.

The visitors were able to repel several Wests Tigers raids before finding the next points of the contest through Campbell Rubie who managed to slam the ball down off a determined centrefield carry a little over an hour into proceedings.

Reed continued his stellar afternoon just moments later fending and stepping his way through to dive over under the posts and make his side’s lead an imposing one heading into the final stretch.

The floodgates had truly opened for the Red V their following set with Reed’s boot laying on yet another four-pointer – this time for skipper Ryan Hutchinson who fell on one of the No.7’s pinpoint grubbers to score.

Reed added another assist to his afternoon tally in the final stages hitting Heidke with a delightful short ball to send the centre pouring through a gap to score and bring up the side’s half-century.

Heidke found another for the visitors on the stroke of full-time – this time off an Isaiah Fagalilo grubber – to put a bow on a convincing Dragons win.