It proved a family affair in the Dragons’ Knock-On Effect NSW Cup clash at Accor Stadium on Thursday evening with the Finau and Feagai brothers combining for all six of the side’s tries in their 28-12 win over the Bulldogs.
Sione Finau crossed early on to make it three consecutive try-scoring outings before snagging tries No.2 and No.3 in the second half as the Dragons overcame a halftime deficit for their third victory on the trot.
Match: Bulldogs v Dragons
Round 12 -
home Team
Bulldogs
4th Position
away Team
Dragons
6th Position
Venue: Accor Stadium, Sydney
The winger found himself in the game early for the Red V skying to defuse an attacking Bulldogs kick before promptly earning his side a piggybacking penalty.
Finau dove over in the right corner down the other end to back up his effort up off an extended period of pressure thanks to a sharp Max Feagai tip-on on his inside.
Jonah Glover’s conversion attempt was waved away as the score remained 4-0 the way of the Dragons close to a quarter of the way into proceedings.
The Dragons put together a booming set off the back of points thanks in large part to a pair of determined Ben Murdoch-Masila and Michael Molo carries with Max Feagai coming close to finding the side’s second off an aerial raid only to be wrapped up shy of the line.
The centre came down with yet another of Jesse Marschke’s weighted bombs moments later but was again brought down short of the stripe.
The hosts instead went down the other end to snatch their opening points through Lachlan Vale off a bungled Dragons kick defusal with Joash Papalii’s conversion putting them ahead by two.
Ryan Couchman was placed on report soon after for a dangerous tackle with Blake Taaffe scoring pouncing on his own grubber off the back of it to extend the Bulldogs’ edge beyond a converted try.
A beautiful piece of attacking football against the run of play on the stroke of the siren saw Marschke send supporting skipper Mathew Feagai over to cut the deficit back to two.
Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Highlights: Round 12
Mathew Feagai dragged opposing fullback Papalii over the sideline in a stupendous, one-on-one cover tackle early in the second stanza with twin brother Max storming his way over underneath Haele Finau off the back of it to put the Red V back in front despite Glover’s conversion cannoning off the left upright and out.
Max Feagai and Sione Finau combined for another just shy of the hour mark to grow the visitors’ lead with the winger scurrying over in the right corner for his second to punish a Bulldogs edge which had been stripped for numbers.
Glover’s conversion cleared the cross bar by a matter of inches as the Dragons leapt out to their largest lead of the evening.
Finau pounced on a dropped bomb the following set to snag his third of the contest and put the visitors in a commanding position entering the final stages.
A fresh Jackson Shereb strode into the backfield and past the fullback to dive over only for the officials to rule that the back rower had lost possession in the grounding attempt.
Haele Finau joined his younger brother on scoresheet soon after scampering over out of dummy-half as the visitors went up 28-12 entering the final 10.
Finau toed forward a Marschke grubber in search of his fourth late only for his kick to trickle dead in-goal.
