Austrlia
St George Illawarra have announced themselves as the real deal in 2018 with a powerful 34-14 win over a very scrappy Storm outfit at a packed Jubilee Oval on Sunday afternoon.
While the Storm were left unhappy with some curious officiating in the first half, the reigning Telstra Premiership winners did themselves no favours with a host of errors at both ends of the field including simple handling errors and forward passes.
Josh Addo-Carr and Euan Aitken further pressed their claims of an Holden State of Origin debut for NSW as Aitken bagged a double and Addo-Carr a hat-trick. He now has nine tries in his past four games.
The first half saw an energetic opening from the Dragons as they went up 10-0 in the 15th minute courtesy of two penalty goals and a strong Aitken try off a nicely delayed Ben Hunt short ball.
The Storm had struggled to get any possession or field position but easily sliced through the Dragons' right side defence on their first real attacking chance to make it 10-4 inside 20 minutes.
From there the remainder of the half descended into a scrappy affair with plenty of penalties and both teams struggling badly to even complete a set.
Shortly after the Addo-Carr no try – which could have made it 10-all in the 30th minute – the Referees' Bunker correctly overturned a try awarded to Cameron Munster for a double movement after he burrowed over from dummy half.
More scrappy play from both sides eventually resulted in a third penalty goal for Widdop a minute before half time with the Dragons holding a comfortable 12-4 lead.
St George Illawarra have announced themselves as the real deal in 2018 with a powerful 34-14 win over a very scrappy Storm outfit at a packed Jubilee Oval on Sunday afternoon.
While the Storm were left unhappy with some curious officiating in the first half, the reigning Telstra Premiership winners did themselves no favours with a host of errors at both ends of the field including simple handling errors and forward passes.
Josh Addo-Carr and Euan Aitken further pressed their claims of an Holden State of Origin debut for NSW as Aitken bagged a double and Addo-Carr a hat-trick. He now has nine tries in his past four games.
The first half saw an energetic opening from the Dragons as they went up 10-0 in the 15th minute courtesy of two penalty goals and a strong Aitken try off a nicely delayed Ben Hunt short ball.
The Storm had struggled to get any possession or field position but easily sliced through the Dragons' right side defence on their first real attacking chance to make it 10-4 inside 20 minutes.
From there the remainder of the half descended into a scrappy affair with plenty of penalties and both teams struggling badly to even complete a set.
Shortly after the Addo-Carr no try – which could have made it 10-all in the 30th minute – the Referees' Bunker correctly overturned a try awarded to Cameron Munster for a double movement after he burrowed over from dummy half.
More scrappy play from both sides eventually resulted in a third penalty goal for Widdop a minute before half time with the Dragons holding a comfortable 12-4 lead.
