A clinical Dragons outfit whizzed past the Sea Eagles 52-12 in their Knock-On Effect NSW Cup clash at Collegians on Saturday.
Local junior Tom Kirk was handed a Knock-On Effect NSW Cup debut having spent the summer training with the club’s NRL squad and impressed in the early part of the Jersey Flegg year.
Several youngsters starred for the Red V including Kade Reed – who scored two tries in a 24-point individual haul – and captain Jacob Halangahu who also nabbed a try to go with his usual workload.
Match: Dragons v Sea Eagles
Round 6 -
home Team
Dragons
1st Position
away Team
Sea Eagles
13th Position
Venue: Collegians Sporting Complex, Wollongong
The Dragons struck first with Lyhkan King-Togia zipping into space off a timely, mid-field offload and handing it off to a supporting Tyler Peckham-Harris who dove over.
Kade Reed knocked over the extras to make it 6-0 a little over 10 minutes into the contest.
It didn’t take long for Reed to again etch his name onto the scoresheet with the Dragons No.7 on the end of a skilful sequence in which King-Togia put Jarrah Treweek into space before getting the ball back and sending his halves partner over under the sticks untouched.
The hosts’ hot start continued with Treweek finding a try the very next set after Reed landed a cross-field kick on a dime for a flying Kirk who took it in and crafted an offload for his supporting second-rower.
Reed remained a perfect three-from-three from the tee to make it 18-0 a little over a quarter of the way in.
The Dragons then made it three tries from as many sets with King-Togia again tearing the Manly defensive line a part in conjunction with Cyrus Stanley-Traill.
The ball made its way again inside to a supporting Reed who scored behind the sticks and converted his own four-pointer to take his personal points tally up to 16.
Boosted by a high tackle penalty, the Dragons again found themselves on the attack the next set and again found points with Kirk diving over to finish off a left-side shift and make it 30-0.
Manly found their first points prior to break through centre Josh Feledy to cut the deficit back to 30-6 headed into half-time.
Joey Walsh was placed on report for a dangerous throw on Toby Rumble early in the second half but the Dragons were unable to capitalise.
The Dragons found more success down the left-hand corridor soon after however with David Afu muscling his way over down a narrow short side.
Skipper Jacob Halangahu willed his way to the stripe to slam the ball down moments later as the scoreline ballooned out to 40-6.
Jacob Webster looked to have crashed over for the Red V soon after only for the official to rule a forward pass in the lead-up.
Webster was eventually rewarded however with the hard-working front-rower winning the race to a deft Reed kick to score and send his side into party mode.
Navren Willett grabbed a late try for Manly but the clash’s final say belonged to the home side with Loko Jnr Pasifiki Tonga powering his way over as the Red V brought up a deserved half-century.
