Dragons fall in local derby

A Dragons error gifted the visitors an early opportunity with Jesse Ramien crashing over off the scrum to make it 4-0.

The video officials were brought into the game after Briton Nikora hit the deck in pursuit of a Braydon Trindall grubber, but it was given the all clear with it instead resulting in a goal-line dropout.

The Red V defence held strong with Mathew Feagai cleaning up a loose kick and taking off downfield before being collected high by a Jesse Ramien swinging arm which saw the centre sent to the sin bin.

Ben Hunt fired in a successful challenge shortly after to earn his side possession after it had initially been ruled that the Dragons skipper had dropped the ball whilst defusing a kick.

The Dragons manufactured a miraculous try off it with a Hunt miskick ending up in the arms of Zac Lomax who knocked it backwards before regathering it and offloading it inside to Max Feagai.

Feagai crafted a sublime grubber which he was able to reel in before shoving away from the cover and finding Jack Bird back on the inside with a miracle offload to score.

Lomax slotted the extras to the give the hosts their first lead of the encounter.

With Ramien back on the paddock, the Sharks came up with a hit-back through Kayal Iro who stormed over off a fifth-tackle face ball.

They extended their lead soon after through another fifth-tackle raid with Samuel Stonestreet muscling his way over in the northwest corner.

Max Feagai left the field in the aftermath of the try with an apparent injury concern forcing Jaydn Su’A into the centres and Ryan Couchman back on in the second row.

The Dragons centre returned to the field for the second forty however Tom Eisenhuth exited the action for a HIA – which he passed – resulting in Royce Hunt being placed on report.

The hosts were awarded a try off the back of it with Lomax pouncing on a Sloan grubber only for video officials to overturn the decision on account of a push in the lead-up.

Hunt was held up over the line with a little under a half-hour on the clock before Christian Tuipulotu found the hosts’ second powering over in the corner off some nice Luciano Leilua hands to cut the deficit back to four.

The Sharks came up with an answer through William Kennedy who outleapt his opposite to take in a Trindall bomb and extend their edge back to double digits.

They found another moments later through Briton Nikora back against the grain as the scoreline began to get away from the hosts.

The Dragons sliced through soon off it with Jacob Liddle linking with Hunt only for his final pass to frustratingly hit the official as the raid ended.

It was instead the Sharks who were next to strike again through Stonestreet as the scoreline ballooned out to 32-10.

Mawene Hiroti joined the try-scorers list in the final stages to put a bow on a key victory for the visitors.