In a tale of two halves, the Sharks have rallied in the second 40 minutes to win back the Monty Porter Cup.
Trailing at the break, the Sharks held their rivals scoreless in the second half, while crossing for five tries of their own in claiming a 34-12 victory over the Dragons in the round 14 clash at Ocean Protect Stadium.
The Dragons, coming off the back of their first win this season, were hungry for a second consecutive victory, and while they showed good intent, it would be the Sharks proving too good.
The win was made somewhat more commendable due to the fact the Sharks were without two important members of their spine in Blayke Brailey and Nicho Hynes, while Jesse Ramien was a late withdrawal with a knee issue.
It was a game which was heading towards a nail biting finish, however it turned into a convincing win, at least on the scoreboard, with the Cronulla side turning in an impressive second half performance.
The game began with errors in the backfield seeing the home side forced to defend their line, the Dragons going ahead 2-0 courtesy of a penalty goal, before a lift in energy, a tackle bust and flick pass from Ronaldo Mulitalo to Briton Nikora pushed the Sharks upfield, giving them their first real attacking opportunity.
Capitalising on their positive field position, the first try went to Mulitalo two tackles later, slick hands from the right edge seeing the classy Sharks winger slide across next to the corner post.
Braydon Trindall kicked the goal from the sideline, putting the Sharks in front 6-2.
The Cronulla team continued to be their own worst enemies, overturning possession and inviting St George Illawarra into their end of the field and it was Sharks 2016 Grand Final hero Valentine Holmes crossing the line for the Dragons. Holmes added the extras from wide out and the visitors were up 8-6.
With four minutes remaining in the opening period a short side move resulted in Mathew Feagai finding himself wide open, the winger planting the ball down in the south-eastern corner of Ocean Protect and while the Holmes conversion drifted wide, the visitors would lead 12-6 at halftime.
After enjoying lion’s share of possession opening the second half, the Sharks upped the intensity and a deep pass found Nikora, who evaded the defence in a 20 metre run to the line, the Queensland Origin rep and Kiwi international touching down under the posts.
In the following set a clever Billy Burns off load put Niwhai Puru into open space, the young halfback throwing a perfectly timed inside pass to Will Kennedy, the Sharks fullback easily winning the race to the line in a 50-metre dash. Trindall was successful with both conversions and the Sharks now had the lead at 18-12.
The shift in momentum continued, another line break down the left edge by KL Iro in the 57th minute, who passed to Sam Stonstreet, saw Cronulla score a fourth try of the afternoon, then two sets later, on the opposite wing, Mulitalo crossed for his second.
Desperation from Kennedy and Mulitalo in getting to a dangerously placed grubber kick saved four points at one end, before the Sharks would top off their win when a Trindall show and go with just over five minutes remaining would complete the try scoring, the extra two from the number six pushing the score out to 34-12.
The Sharks now head to Auckland next weekend to take on the Warriors after consecutive wins over the Bulldogs, Sea Eagles and now Dragons.
That round 15 match is scheduled for a 5.30pm kick off (Sydney time).
