You may not have expected it after their recent run of results but the St George Illawarra Dragons are both in the top eight and flying high after a win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
It was one-way traffic from the opening kick off and could have been even worse had the Dragons not taken their foot off the accelerator.
Celebrating Andrew McCullough’s 300th game, the Dragons had just as much of a a point to prove as their counterparts did.
It started as one of those nights for the Rabbitohs when Lachlan Ilias knocked on from the kickoff and it didn’t get much better,
After some sustained pressure, the Rabbitohs defence then cracked.
Ben Hunt’s pinpoint kick found aerial specialist Zac Lomax and he found Hunt on the inside to open the scoring.
It was then a welcome return to first grade for Dragons Fijian winger Mikaele Ravalawa who took a lovely pass from Talatau Amone.
Up 12-0 and you would think the scoring might dry up a bit, right. It was just beginning.
Jack de Belin barged over from close range snd extended the Dragons lead.
It just went from bad to worse when Lomax and Ravalawa combined with the Fijian turning Alex Johnston inside out to score.
Two further tries ensued and it was looking ugly for the Rabbitohs.
Moses Suli was able to fly highest off a Ben Hunt crossfield kick to enhance the lead.
Jack Bird then found Cody Ramsay racing through on his inside to score and put the score at 32-0.
Not impressed by what he saw, Souths coach Jason Demetriou made the strange decision to hook Lachlan Ilias.
Blake Taaffe would play half from then on to spark the attack but it seemed to have little effect even after Talatau Amone was sin-binned.
After 60 minutes, the Rabbitohs attack finally found some life when Damien Cook pounced from dummy half.
Cameron Murray then strolled through some mediocre Dragons defence and a possible comeback was a slight chance.
It would be all she wrote, however, as no further points were scored with the win a pleasing one for Dragons fans.
Dragons coach Anthony Griffin was pleased his side could bounce back after last week’s effort.
“Last week was one of our worst performances of the season so it showed a lot of character to bounce back like that,” said Griffin.
Demetriou said his decision to hook Ilias is not an indication of the young half being the one to blame.
“It’s not on him, it’s about trying to get a response for the team,” said Demetriou.
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