The battle of the Shire again throws up another thriller.
Two tries to St George Illawarra winger Brett Morris has helped guide the Dragons to their third win from as many games as they downed the Cronulla Sharks 14-12.
Morris crossed twice in the first half, including one spectacular effort on the stroke of half-time that will be a candidate for try of the season.
Despite a four-pointer from Sharks’ hooker John Morris, the Cronulla side slipped to its third loss of the season in what was a tough arm-wrestle of a game.
Brett Morris scored his 100th try in the NRL when he showed great strength to stay inside the sideline despite the attention of Todd Carney and Blake Ayshford.
The four-pointer might have been lucky after the Dragons earned another set of six on the Sharks’
try-line.
However, with the try Morris continued his sensational strike-rate in his 154 games in the top grade.
Gareth Widdop missed his first conversion attempt for the season, but the Dragons earned the 4-0 lead.
Carney showed no signs of the injury woes that kept him out of action last week as the five-eighth injected himself into the attack early and often.
Cronulla opened their account when John Morris sold the dummy at the ruck, with the Dragons’ defence at the line falling for it allowing the hooker to score a sneaky try.
The Sharks grabbed the lead with the conversion, as they made the Dragons pay for having the third worst ruck defence early in the season.
After a 40-20 kick from the Dragons they failed to captalise with players drifting off-side before the tap restart before a knock-on relieved the pressure on the Sharks’ line.
St George looked dangerous most times they set up plays on their left edge as Gerard Beale and Morris combined to test the Sharks defence.
Morris looked to have bagged his second for the game, but on closer inspection, the flying winger’s elbow hit the sideline at the same time as he touched down.
The red V were shown the red light on the video screen and the Sharks survived with their slim lead.
Jason Nightingale scored his side’s second for the game after he soared through the air to take a well-placed kick from halfback Sam Williams.
The Kiwi winger cleanly gathered the kick and planted it as the Dragons jumped out to a two point lead.
With time running out in the first half, Morris scoring one of the best tries in recent years in the NRL
as he planted the ball down while in mid-air and with his entire body outside the field of play.
As the siren sounded for half-time the Dragons took a vital eight-point lead.
“I’m not quite score how I did that but we practice things like that training and really I think him knocking me actually helped as it go my legs away from the sideline,” Morris said
after scoring.
After the resumption, the Sharks were denied a try in the 50th minute off the back of a kick into the in-goal from Carney, as Cronulla continued to circle.
With a stiff breeze at their backs mid-way through the second half, the Sharks began to camp inside the danger zone of the Dragons.
However, they were unable to puncture the line with the Sharks opting for several flat passes at the line which did not work out and gave the men in red and white a chance to relieve the pressure put on them.
John Morris scored his second for the game when he snuck across the line with three Dragons defenders hanging onto him to breathe life back into the game.
The conversion ensured the result was back on the table as the Sharks close to be just two points behind with 10 minutes left in the game.
However, try and they might the Sharks could not crack the line one last time as they lost for the third time in as many games.
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