Maligned halves pairing Nathan Fien and Jamie Soward flicked the life support switch off St George Illawarra's season after inspiring the Dragons to an upset win over bitter rivals Cronulla on Saturday night.
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Bearing the brunt of a torrent of criticism following the Dragons' winless start to the year, Fien and Soward were back to their best in the Red V's drought-breaking 25-12 victory.
Fien latched onto a Trent Merrin around-the-corner pass to open the scoring before Soward streaked 80 metres to fire the Dragons to an early 12-0 lead.
Fien then had a hand in the Dragons' third and fourth tries, helping set up former New Zealand team-mate Jason Nightingale to acrobatically dive over in the corner before the winger latched onto a deft Fien grubber.
Soward put the result beyond doubt after calmly piloting over a field goal to catapult the Dragons to a 13-point cushion inside the final 10 minutes.
"We've had a tough couple of weeks, but it's a credit to our playing group and our footy club that we hung tough and got our defence back in order," coach Steve Price said.
"We'd certainly been leaking far too many points before [Saturday night's] game. To keep a quality team to 12 points I thought was an outstanding display. I'm just very pleased for the guys."
St George Illawarra avoided their worst start to a season since 2005 by plunging to what many expected would be a fourth straight loss. Nathan Brown's star-studded Dragons recovered from that stumble eight years ago and eventually made the preliminary final.
Such expectation on Price's side seems far-fetched considering deflating losses to Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra to open their campaign, but the performance at least breathed life into a season which seemed destined to be over before it really started.
And might have added a little credence to Price's push for a contract extension despite the Dragons pursuing other avenues.
"It's not about me - it's all about this footy club and the playing group," said Price, when quizzed on the prospect of the win easing the heat on his position. "I've got belief in the players and they're the ones who have been putting in the hard yards.
"We know that we are a good footy team. Certain things haven't been happening in previous weeks. It's a step in the right place and we can really carry that forward now."
Cronulla, who lost the services of star playmaker Todd Carney to a first-half foot injury, twice threatened to have the majority of the sell out 20,130 crowd in raptures after reducing the deficit to a converted try each side of half-time.
"He heard something snap, but it was his orthotic," Sharks coach Shane Flanagan said of Carney's injury. "We'll just have to get some scans. They think it's a mid-foot sprain so it's not his achilles or anything like that. Hopefully it's not too bad."
Jeff Robson touched down in the shadows of the break after Ben Pomeroy somehow swatted the halfback's kick back into the field of play as the ball was airborne over the dead ball line.
And after the first of Nightingale's second-half double, Andrew Fifita ambled over from close range when John Morris' astute pass fooled a stoic Dragons defence which only had eyes for an out-the-back play.
Flanagan conceded the hosts were outenthused by a desperate neighbour, who stole away to Wollongong with the inaugural Monty Porter Cup.
"The Dragons were good and we were the other end," he said. "We turned over too much footy. We were off and they were on.
"They played with some attitude and we didn't have that. Why? I'll have to find that out."
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 25 (Jason Nightingale 2, Nathan Fien, Jamie Soward tries; Soward 4 goals, field goal) defeated CRONULLA SHARKS 12 (Jeff Robson, Andrew Fifita tries; Michael Gordon 2 goals) at Sharks Stadium. Crowd: 20,130. Referees: Ashley Klein and Phil Haines.