Dragons claw way past Storm at Jubilee

The Dragons fired in a Captain’s Challenge less than two minutes into the encounter but were denied by video officials as Melbourne surged onto the attack.

A determined Dragons defence held the visitors out however with Tyrell Sloan shoving his opposite into touch to earn his side a 20-metre restart.

The Storm enjoyed the bulk of early field position, but the Red V wall held strong with Sloan defusing a kick in-goal to again put an end to the raid.

Luciano Leilua was placed on report for a high shot on Storm halfback Tyran Wishart.

Cameron Munster claimed a try for Melbourne off an attacking kick soon after, but video officials concurred with the on-field ruling that Clint Gutherson had made the ball dead.

Back-to-back-to-back penalties saw Melbourne sent back down the field with Wishart knocking over a gift penalty goal for the first points of the afternoon.

The Dragons were again whistled the following set for a dangerous tackle which saw Emre Guler placed on report.

Egan was inserted into the action a little over a half-hour into the contest for his first taste of the NRL.

Despite contending with a 5-1 penalty count, the Dragons found the first try of the afternoon shortly after with Valentine Holmes slicing through a hole off the hip of Gutherson for his first try as a Dragon.

Holmes converted his own try to give his side a 6-2 advantage five minutes out from the break.

Melbourne hit back prior to half-time through Ryan Papenhuyzen who took in an Eliesa Katoa offload to dive over and give his side a two-point edge.

The second stanza began in intense fashion with several instances of heavy contact before Holmes looked to tie things up with a penalty goal only for the ball to cannon off the right upright and out.

Damien Cook was taken from the field for a HIA – which he passed – with Liddle inserted into the action.

Shawn Blore looked to have extended the Melbourne lead off it only for a desperate Gutherson and Lachlan Ilias to force a knock-on in the grounding attempt.

Gutherson went close to finding points for the Red V out of acting half an hour in but was unable to get the ball to the turf.

Holmes instead knocked a penalty goal over several plays later from in front to lock things up at eight points apiece.

The Storm looked to have wrestled the lead back moments later with Katoa skying to take in a Cameron Munster kick only for video officials to find a mid-air knock-on.

Egan carted the ball forward in inspirational fashion off the corresponding restart to earn his side a penalty and send the Kogarah faithful into a frenzy.

The Red V hit the lead soon after with Jacob Liddle scampering out of dummy-half and getting the ball to the chalk by a matter of inches with Holmes’ subsequent conversion making it a six-point game.

A kick-off error resulted in a Dragons drop-out which Gutherson lobbed up short and appeared to have forced a Storm error.

The visitors lodged a Captain’s Challenge to dispute the call but were turned down by video officials.

A late Jaydn Su’A and Toby Couchman effort to push Xavier Coates back in-goal sealed a special Dragons win in testing conditions.