Dragons storm past Eels for key NRLW victory

The visitors got off to a dream start dragging the Eels into touch off the opening kick-off to earn an early opportunity with the Berry and Bobbi Law combination coming up trumps as the former sent the latter steaming over in the right corner.

Raecene McGregor guided the conversion over from just inside the touchline to make it 6-0 the way of the Red V.

The hosts found a response soon after with Monique Donovan on the end of a nice catch-and-pass sequence as they cut the deficit back to two.

McGregor’s boot went close to producing a result for the Dragons a quarter of the way in with the side launching an attack off a botched kick defusal only for the hosts’ scramble to come up with a stop.

Keele Browne joined centre partner Law in the try-scorers column moments later with a deft McGregor punt ending up in her waiting arms after being allowed to bounce in-goal.

McGregor’s conversion attempt smacked into the left upright and out as the lead remained at 10-4.

The Eels managed a hit-back through a kick of their own with Rory Owen diving on a cross-field Rachael Pearson chip which had been spilt in-goal to cut the Dragons’ edge back to two points.

The back-and-forth nature of the contest continued the Dragons’ following set with Ella Koster powering her way over down the right-hand corridor off Kasey Reh for the side’s third try.

Browne went close to nabbing her second off another well-placed McGregor chip only for video officials to pick up a double knock-on in the lead-up.

The hosts went within inches of answering on the stroke of the half-time siren through Owen only for Berry to pull off a phenomenal try-saver.

The second stanza started in superb fashion for the Dragons with Zali Hopkins taking advantage of a rapid Alexis Tauaneai play-the-ball to slam the ball down out of dummy-half to the right of the sticks and earn her side their biggest lead of the afternoon.

Hopkins again injected herself into the next set scampering into space out of dummy-half and drawing the fullback before moving the ball back inside to Berry who finished it off underneath the sticks.

The Dragons’ onslaught continued with Berry jetting over down the left-hand corridor off an exchange of midfield offloads for her second try in as many minutes to make it 32-8.

Hopkins’ outstanding afternoon continued with the No.9 again slipping into the backfield before finding a supporting McGregor who had the ball dislodged as she fell towards the line with video officials ruling a knock-on rather than a strip.

Pearson stepped her way over and converted her own try 55 minutes in to stop the bleeding for the hosts and cut the lead back to 32-14.

The video officials were brought into the game again moments later with Rosemarie Beckett going close to finding another for the hosts only for the Red V defenders to hold her up.

Browne steamed through a hole off a McGregor face ball the Dragons’ next possession to dive over for her second of the afternoon and improve her side’s buffer back to 22 points.

The Dragons seemed hardly content with Maatuleio Fotu-Moala and Charlotte Basham both finding themselves held up over the line in search of further points before Sophie Clancy nudged her way over for the first try of her NRLW career to seal the victory.