A David Fale triple powered the Dragons to a 38-8 win over Parramatta at a sunbathed CommBank Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The win saw Willie Talau’s men improve to a perfect 3-0 on the year having knocked off Canterbury and Melbourne in the opening two rounds.
Having scored his opening try as a Dragon a week ago, Fale stole the show for the visitors with a three-try effort whilst wing partner Toby Rumble – in just the second Knock-On Effect NSW Cup game of his young career – managed two of his own.
20-year-old half Kade Reed laid on a pair of tries in his return from a Round 1 head knock whilst hooker Ha’ele Finau found himself in everything having a hand in multiple tries as the Dragons stormed to a key win in enemy territory.
Match: Eels v Dragons
Round 3 -
home Team
Eels
8th Position
away Team
Dragons
2nd Position
Venue: CommBank Stadium, Sydney
The Dragons nabbed first points through Rumble who finished off a long-range effort against the run of play after Finau scooped up an Eels error and took off in the other direction.
A Luca Morretti sin bin made life more difficult for the hosts with Rumble crossing for his second off it courtesy of a pristine Reed cut-out.
The David Fale Show began soon after with the winger strolling over off a Tyrell Sloan long ball off the back of a Finau break for the first of his three.
Moments later, Fale scooped up a loose Eels bat-on and raced 85 metres untouched to dive over under the posts.
Finau shot through again prior to half-time to take in a Lyhkan King-Togia bomb moments later and sent the ball the way of Fale who shoved his way to the line for try No.2.
On the other side of the half, Jacob Halangahu got his name on the scoresheet slipping through a pair of defenders to slam the ball down.
Reed fashioned a deft banana kick which Parramatta failed to clean up as Sloan steamed through to pounce on it and score.
Jake Tago nabbed a late double for the hosts but it proved in vain with Talau’s cruising to a comprehensive victory.
They now shift their attention to a Round 4 match-up with North Sydney at Gerringong’s Michael Cronin Oval.
