Knock-On Effect NSW Cup: Dragons downed by Newtown

Jets fullback Mawene Hiroti came up with a bust on his opening touch of the game, but the Dragons defence held solid off it.

A marker penalty earnt the hosts another shot at the Dragons line soon after with Hiroti slipping through on a sweep play to nab first points and make it 4-0.

Jayden Berrell sliced through moments later and handed the ball inside to a supporting Kyle Pickering to make it a double-digit game less than 15 minutes into proceedings.

Newtown’s early domination of possession and territory again bore fruit with Jordin Leiu crossing over to extend the lead out to 16 a little over a quarter of the way in.

Things went from bad to worse for the Dragons with their following kick-off sailing dead on the full to give the Jets another chance in good ball.

They withstood the pressure however and managed a needed try soon after with a nice piece of ball movement sparked by a Cyrus Stanley-Traill offload resulting in a Lyric Craft-Te Moananui try in the right-hand corner.

They turned to Nick Tsougranis not long after and the boom centre delivered pouring through a hole off the hip of Cody Ramsey and outpacing the fullback to dive over.

Jonah Glover nailed the conversion to cut the Jets’ edge back to just a half-dozen heading into the intermission.

The Jets took advantage of a quick Dragons error to extend their lead back to double digits early in the second forty with Kristian Dixon strolling over.

Jesse Williams was denied a try for the visitors soon after with officials ruling a forward pass in the lead-up.

Newtown went down the other end and scored through Michael Gabrael who won the race to a Niwhai Puru grubber as the lead grew back beyond a pair of converted tries.

Fortune continued to favour the home side with Berrell finding another off a spilt Puru bomb as the deficit grew into an imposing one.

The Dragons were able to get one back moments later on a wild, last-tackle effort with Tsougranis finishing things off for his second.

Tsougranis limped off soon after with an apparent lower leg issue as the as the Dragons were forced into a backline re-shuffle.

The Jets took advantage of Tsougranis’ absence with Hiroti muscling his way over down the left-hand side of the field to push the Jets one step closer to victory.

Hiroti secured a late hat-trick to cap off a dominant afternoon for the Jets on home soil.