Trailing 18-14 with seven minutes remaining, the Dragons twice squandered opportunities to take the lead, with Paul Vaughan and Brayden Wiliame both coughing up what looked like certain tries in the space of a minute.

Vaughan looked certain to cross untouched next to the posts only to spill a one-handed off-load from Hunt with no one in front of him. It looked like the home side's last chance before Frizell created one all on his own, busting the Tigers open on the left flank.

Wiliame and Corey Norman both loomed in support but Frizell couldn't find either with the final pass. Nofoaluma grabbed his second try to ice the game moments later.

The Tigers made them pay at the other end, with David Nofoaluma's second try sealing a 24-14 win for the visitors on a dreary night at WIN Stadium.

It came after Tariq Sims dropped the ball over the line seven minutes into the second half with his side leading 14-8. It proved the telling moment of the match, with Benji Marshall scoring at the other end for a 12-point turnaround that levelled the match at 14-all.

It was a luck-less night for the Dragons but, after a 2019 campaign entirely devoid of good fortune, they weren't entitled to expect any. At 35, Marshall gave a fair lesson in making your own.

In the absence of Luke Brooks, who was a captain's run withdrawal, Marshall laid on tries for David Nofoaluma and Luciano Leilua with deft grubbers and seemingly had the Steeden on a string.

It was only just enough, with Dragons coach Paul McGregor left ruing the fumbles that cost his side a crucial home win to start the season.

"We came in with a lead and got to a six-point lead with a breeze behind us but we just didn't control the game from then on," McGregor said.

"I thought our defence for the amount of work we had to do was very good, besides that soft try at the end. We had to make a hundred-plus more tackles than them in that game but we beat ourselves.

"[We had] possession at 37 per cent, four opportunities with the line open, we didn't finish them off. You create those opportunities at this professional level, you need to score them.

"We didn't score any of them. The 12-point turnaround there we had a drop over the line... that was a real turning point. We kept finding something, the spirit's there, we created opportunity time after time but didn't get the ball over the strip.

"It's [poor] execution really. I know it's game one but you'd like to be scoring them. We created [chances] but we didn't finish."

The Dragons had their share of good fortune early on, with Mikaele Ravalawa awarded the first penalty try of the season just a minute into the match after a 90-metre kick-and-chase effort.

He left the field with a quad injury moments later, while Sims and Wiliame both went close to scoring but fumbled in the Tigers in-goal, with Nofoaluma's first try 12 minutes in levelling the scores.

Lomax was gifted the easiest try of his career 15 minutes before the break when Corey Thompson lost the ball 10 metres out from his own line with a barely a finger laid on him.

Lomax added the extras for a 12-8 lead at the break and pushed the margin out to a converted try with a penalty goal six minutes into the second stanza.

Marshall took advantage of Sims' costly error and laid on Leilua's try 10 minutes later to take his side's first lead at 18-14. They were never headed, with Nofoaluma putting an exclamation point on the win in the dying moments.