St George Illawarra finished atop the Kaiviti Silktails 46-8 at St George Venues Jubilee Stadium on Sunday to continue their minor premiership charge.
It marked their third match from the past five scoring eight tries or more with Toby Rumble, Eden Hodges, and Shadi Hammoud all notching multiple four-pointers.
Match: Dragons v Silktails
Round 21 -
home Team
Dragons
1st Position
away Team
Silktails
14th Position
Venue: St George Venues Jubilee Stadium, Kogarah
Against the run of play, the Silktails opened the scoring after Eden Hodges was hammered off the ball.
The officials allowed play to continue however with Tevita Wanisi taking off downfield for the visitors. Lucas Borg rounded the Silktails winger up but it proved in vain with Maikeli Sadranu going over in the corner the following play to make it 6-0.
Toby Rumble came up with an answer for the Red V off the back of a Drew Langdon break diving over in the corner out of acting half to level things.
Rumble found a second moments later off a nicely run right-side shift to earn the hosts their first lead of the day.
Shadi Hammoud – in his first game back from injury – went over off a Hodges flick pass to extend the Dragons lead.
Hodges scored off his own grubber a half-hour in before Rumble nabbed his third try of the opening forty to earn the Red V a strong lead.
Wanisi found the Silktails’ second of the first stanza prior to the break to cut the deficit back to 28-8.
Kapene Karaitiana – a Gilgandra native who has come through the grades with Illawarra – was inserted into the action 51 minutes in for his first taste of Jersey Flegg action.
The first points of the second half belonged to the Dragons with Oliver Burton slicing through out of dummy-half and finding a supporting Hodges up the middle to score.
Hodges’ standout afternoon continued with the No.6 hitting Drew Langdon to dive over and make it 40-8.
The attack continued to prosper for the Red V with Hammoud showing and going over the stripe for his second entering the final stages.
