DRAGONS

Mick Potter had a taste of it and Matt Elliott now knows it - size doesn't matter for St George Illawarra after the Dragons steamrolled their opposition yet again in the second half.

Labelled too small to match it with the NRL's bigger boppers, a mobile St George Illawarra piled on 25 unanswered points against the Warriors, albeit while the hosts ran into a howling breeze at Eden Park on Saturday.

It comes on the back of a fast-finishing round-one romp over the Tigers; the Dragons now outstripped their first two opponents 49-6 after the break.

Perhaps it's a product of Steve Price's roster rejuvenation, which turned the Dragons from one of the oldest sides in the NRL to one of the youngest.

And it proves a gamble to transform some of his wealth of back-rowers into front-rowers, including the impressive Tyson Frizell and injured Jack de Belin, might end up being a shrewd move after all.

"If you look at the game not too technically, they played the ball faster than what we did," Elliott said after the Dragons' ninth straight win over the Warriors.

"When you do that over an extended period, you burn more fuel than the opposition."

Yet it's what the Dragons are doing without the ball that has coach Steve Price most chuffed.

They withstood concerted efforts of Warriors pressure in the first half to trail by just six points at half-time then scored two tries within three minutes early in the second half to seize control.

"I knew the tide would turn and as you saw we scored 25 points in the second half so I was very pleased," Price said.

"I was really happy with the guys and especially that goal line 'D' in the middle part of the second half. We were under the pump there and the boys stood tall. It was a great display.

"We played the style I expect from our football club and that's what I was mainly focused about."

It's nothing like the style the Warriors produced after they did little to suggest their opening round loss to Parramatta was just a blip.

"Our will to compete in the game at the moment could be questioned," Elliott said. "I don't think, I know we're a much better team than that.

"We've really worked, believe it or not, from a fair distance out these first six games being a key for us."

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 31 (G Beale B Creagh B Morris A Quinlan M Rein tries G Widdop 5 goals G Widdop field goal) bt WARRIORS 12 (J Ropati S Tomkins tries S Johnson 2 goals) at Eden Park. Referee: Jared Maxwell, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 14,392.