Dragons succumb to Titans in NRLW opener

There were some bright moments from new-look halves pairing Raecene McGregor and Zali Hopkins while all three debutantes – Kasey Reh, Bronte Wilson and Leio Fotu-Moala – had some impressive touches.

But some missed opportunities in attack and simple errors with the ball cruelled the Dragons chances and while the team fought back impressively late in the match, they handed the Titans too big of a head start.

The home side had a less than ideal start to the game, giving away an early penalty before a kick for touch failed to find the sideline.

The gifted field position led to the Titans finding first points through their left edge with winger Emily Bass opening the scoring.

The Dragons looked to have capitalised on their first trip inside the Titans' 20, but a well-placed McGregor cross-field kick was unable to be pulled in by Margot Vella. 

The Titans immediately marched down field to force a repeat set leading to a second try for Bass with Lauren Brown this time converting from the left sideline to stretch the lead to 10.

The Dragons managed to claim some field position following a push-and-shove, but a Teagan Berry line break down the left edge couldn’t be polished off with the Titans again turning away the Dragons attack away.

A kick out on the full from Brown followed by a penalty helped the Dragons begin an attacking set, but the Titans again held the home side out. 

A Dragons error handed the Titans another chance to find points, but some strong goal line defence from the Dragons turned the Titans away. 

Some slick ball movement from the Titans was shut down by the Dragons to end the half keeping the margin at 10.

A Titans forced dropout from led to a try for Evania Pelite with a sneaky inside ball from Brown putting the No.1 into space close to the line to make it 14-0.

The Dragons found their first points of the season with Berry making a break down the right edge before flick passing the ball outside to Bobbi Law who juggled it, pulled the ball in and dove over the line.

Back-to-back sets attacking the line helped Titans winger Emily Bass complete a hat-trick - again scoring down the left-hand side.

After some end-to-end football, an attacking kick from Raecene McGregor was collected by Bobbi Law, but the Titans scramble defence was able to stop the Dragons from finding points. 

Another clever kick from McGregor forced a repeat set before the Dragons cracked the Titans goal-line defence through the 2023 NRLW top try-scorer Berry who dummied, stepped and crashed over for her first of the season. 

McGregor’s conversion cut the lead to eight points with as many minutes remaining but neither team was able to find further points as the Dragons went down 18-10.