Alex Hrissis, NSWRL (Saturday, July 26)
Newtown Jets have defeated St George Illawarra Dragons 40-16 in a statement win at Henson Park in Round 21 of The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup.
Newtown opened the scoring through Mawene Hiroti. The fullback threw a nice dummy at the Dragons' defence and ran through to score with ease.
The Jets scored back-to-back tries to double their lead. Hooker Jayden Berrell threw a dummy and split through the defensive line to go on a run before finding Kyle Pickering inside. The back-rower scored underneath the sticks and Niwhai Puru converted for a 10-0 lead.
Newtown scored three in a row to assert their dominance when they were rewarded from some repeat pressure on the 10m line. Jordin Leiu found himself on the end of a short ball and bustled over for a try.
St George Illawarra finally got themselves onto the scoreboard. The Red V were scrambling on the last tackle as they threw the ball around down the right edge to find Cyrus Stanley-Trail, who offloaded to Lyric Craft-Te Moananui who scored in the corner.
The Dragons scored again as they looked to mount a comeback, this time through Nick Tsougranis. The move was started through fullback Cody Ramsey who found Tsougranis bursting through the line and the makeshift centre scored with ease. Glover converted the try to tighten the score to 16-10.
Jets bounced back in the second half and scored two tries within six minutes to push the score out to 26-10. The first coming from Kristian Dixon in the corner and the second from Michael Gabrael, who scooped up the ball from a Khaled Rajab grubber.
Newtown scored yet again as they looked to wrap things up. Moananui struggled to contain a bomb kick from Puru and dropped the ball which bounced perfectly for Berrell to score.
Dragons clawed another try back to attempt to salvage something from the contest. Jonah Glover played a tidy ball out to Moananui who passed inside for Nick Tsougranis. The up-and-coming centre busted through the line again to score. Glover converted to tighten the score to 30-16.
The comeback was left too late for the Dragons however, as Hiroti bagged himself two late tries in quick succession to secure his hat-trick and the two points for Newtown.
Key moment
Dragons went into half-time coming off back-to-back tries as they looked to turn the 16-10 deficit around, however a try from Kristian Dixon put the comeback to bed early as the Jets went on to win the match comfortably.
Talking points
- Mawene Hiroti was in fine form for the Jets as he scored himself a hat-trick.
- Nick Tsougranis was a shining light for the Dragons, with his tackle-busting on full display as well as scoring two of their three tries.
- Jayden Berrell had a solid game for the Jets, scoring a try and setting one up with his speed around the ruck crucial in Newtown's win.
What's next?
In Round 22 of The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup the Jets will play the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at Belmore Sports Ground, while the Dragons will host the Warriors at WIN Stadium in a huge first v second clash.
Lead photo courtesy of MAF Photography.
