Rugby League

Dragons overcome error-prone Rabbitohs

May 11, 2024 9:53 pm

[Source: NRL]

Another productive outing from Zac Lomax helped the Dragons overcome the Rabbitohs 28-14 to give the Red V their fifth win of the season.

Lomax scored 16 points on his own, via a try, a two-point field goal and 10 points off the tee, on an evening in which he also carried the ball for a team-high 197 metres.

It halts a two-game winless run for the Dragons ahead of sitting out Magic Round on the bye next week.

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Through the first hour at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, South Sydney gave themselves every chance of picking up a first win since Round 4, with some gutsy goal-line defence and moments of creative play from Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell.

In the end it fell apart on the back of errors, with 14 mistakes leading to a 65 percent completion rate which simply put too much pressure on their struggling defence.

It took just 10 minutes for Ben Hunt to deliver a pinpoint grubber that gave Lomax his seventh try of the season, but it was back-to-back handling errors from the in-form winger which then contributed to the Rabbitohs getting in position to reply through Mitchell.

The time back on even footing didn’t last long for the Bunnies though, with Jack Bird soon striking after the Dragons marched down field on the back of opposition errors.

Walker had a potential try ruled out by the Bunker in his 200th game when a knock on was found, before Lomax boomed a two-point field goal just before the break to make it a six-point advantage.

After Lomax added an easy two from a penalty in the second half, Izaac Tu’itupou Thompson produced a diving finish in the corner for South Sydney’s second, which left them trailing 14-10 after Mitchell’s conversion went wide.

Tu’itupou Thompson played a direct role in the next four-pointer too, but unfortunately for him it was scored by the Dragons, after he dropped a bomb and gifted the hosts with positive field positioning which they turned into Jaydn Su’A try and Lomax conversion.

Jack de Belin fell on the ball in the in-goal area after Mitchell made a meal of a kick defusal with six to play, putting the result beyond doubt, with Mitchell’s late four-pointer to confirm a personal double being little consolation.