The Dragons took down the Magpies 38-18 in their Knock-On Effect NSW Cup showdown at Collegians on Saturday afternoon to extend their winning streak out to eight.
With the first-grade side on the bye, several big names lined up for Willie Talau in what proved a successful afternoon on home soil.
Match: Dragons v Magpies
Round 16 -
home Team
Dragons
2nd Position
away Team
Magpies
9th Position
Venue: Collegians Sporting Complex, Wollongong
It took just five minutes for the Dragons to open their account through Sione Finau who finished off a textbook shift play.
Willie Talau’s men went back-to-back the following set off the back of strong Luciano Leilua and Viliami Fifita carries.
The halves combined off it to shift the ball out to a flying Tyrell Sloan who dove over in the right-hand corner to make it a double-digit difference.
Fifita was held up over the line for the Dragons soon after, but they managed to cross for their third of the afternoon several plays later with Nathan Lawson slicing through off some nice hands on his inside.
The Dragons produced some more scintillating attack 25 minutes in with Lachlan Ilias sending Cody Ramsey through a gap with an inside ball.
Ramsey lost his footing in the backfield but still managed to fashion a spectacular flick pass to Sloan for his second of the afternoon as the scoring ballooned out to 20-0.
Things got a little chippy prior to the break with both sides coming together underneath the Dragons goalposts.
Tristan Hope was able to get the Magpies on the board off a Dragons error on the stroke of half-time to cut the deficit back to 14.
Hope had another crack early in the second half but was held up over the line by some desperate Dragons defence.
They were able to eat further into the lead however through Izaac Tu’itupou who took in a nice cut-out to stroll over in the southeastern corner.
Kurt Falls knocked over the conversion to bring it back to 20-12 about 55 minutes in.
With a little under a quarter of the match remaining, Tony Sukkar muscled his way over for the Magpies as their comeback charged gained some more steam.
Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Highlights: Round 16 v Magpies
It was dealt a blow off the corresponding kick-off however with a dropped ball landing in the lap of Emre Guler who crafted an offload to Connor Muhleisen to score next to the sticks and improve the edge back beyond a converted try.
The Dragons were able to seal it late with Guler powering his way over for a try of his own next to the uprights with Glover adding the extras to make it 32-18.
Lawson went over on the stroke of full-time to put the icing on the cake for the Red V as they marched towards their eighth-straight win.
