SOUTH Sydney ensured the Dragons stay in top eight was a brief one, leap-frogging their traditional rivals into eighth spot with a 34-24 win in a scrappy affair at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night.
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The Dragons led 12-4 10 minutes before halftime on the back of tries to Jake Marketo and Tim Lafai only to surrender two tries in the final seven minutes to somehow trail at the break.
They got within two points at 20-18 on the back of Kalifa Faifai Loa’s 52nd minute try but couldn’t regain the lead with tries to Paul Carter and Bryson Goodwin’s second five minutes from fulltime icing the game.
NSW hopeful Adam Reynolds did his chances of a Blues call-up no harm, shrugging off some early wobbles to lay on all three of the Rabbitohs second half tries with kicks in a commanding performance for the hosts.
The Dragons got off to a flyer when Marketo crossed inside two minutes and led 12-4 when Lafai dashed 70 metres to score their second in the 26th minute.
The Rabbitohs kept in touch through tries to Goodwin and Dane Nielsen and snatched back the lead through some individual brilliance from Cody Walker, who grubbered for himself and regathered next to the posts, to snatch back the lead 14-12 on the stroke of halftime.
A dropped ball from George Burgess gave the Dragons a golden opportunity immediately following the resumption but they were content to level things up at 14-all via a third penalty goal to Widdop.
The dead-lock was short-lived with Kyle Turner scoring at other end from a Reynolds kick just three minutes later to re-take the lead 20-14.
Faifai Loa’s try gave the Dragons a sniff with 25 remaining, winning the race to a Josh McCrone grubber to score in the right-hand corner and cut the deficit to two at 20-18.
The Rabbitohs kicked away again when Paul Carter grounded a Reynolds grubber in the Dragons in-goal after both Dugan and Burgess fumbled the ball. Reynold’s conversion gave Souths an eight-point lead with 16 minutes remaining.
Goodwin’s second gave the hosts a 30-18 lead with six minutes left with a consolation try to Will Matthews and penalty goal from Reynolds rounding out the 34-24 result.