Jersey Flegg: Dragons hold off Raiders to continue win streak

The Dragons got off to a perfect start with Jesse Williams – in his first outing of 2026 – streaking into space down the right-hand touchline to put the Dragons on the attack.

Mason Phillips jumped out of dummy-half off the back of it to put a steaming Bailey Carmichael over virtually untouched for the side's first points. Eden Hodges knocked over the extras to make it 6-0.

The Raiders took advantage of a yardage penalty their next set to respond with Taylor Withington crashing over to the right of the posts to lock things up.

The home side managed to hit the lead soon after with Callum Dowell throwing a looping cut-out to James Croker who stepped his way to the stripe in the right-hand corner.

It did not take Williams long to get his name on the scoresheet with the rapid winger on the end of a skilful Dragons sequence sparked by Phillips.

The Dragons managed to wrestle back the lead heading into the break with Campbell Lyons – in his return from injury – surging over off the back of bouncing pass.

The Raiders manufactured a needed hit-back on the other side of the break with Dowell producing another perfect pass this time to Kruger Roache to make it 16-all.

The Dragons unfortunately lost Lyons moments later to an apparent shoulder injury seeing Cooper Hale come into the match.

Carmichael helped to produce a miraculous try for the visitors an hour in taking in the ball on the fifth tackle, attracting a collection of defenders, and somehow squeezing the ball out to front-row partner Ben Jackson to dive over.

Hardy Glover looked to have scored off a Dowell grubber but was ruled to have knocked the ball on in his grounding attempt.

The Dragons took the 20-metre restart and marched back down the other end with Williams finding his second to continue his strong outing.

Refusing to yield, the Raiders cut the deficit back to just six having regained possession via a successful short restart to pave the way for Roache to nab his second.