Dragons show enough fire to extinguish Palmerston bid
DARWIN coach Puru Westrupp was pleased with the grit his side showed to come away with a 24-19 pre-season cup win against Palmerston at Rugby Park last night.
In steamy conditions, both teams were rusty in attack. Handling errors were a feature of the contest as the wet surface caused havoc.
Westrupp said he was pleased with the effort shown by his troops against last year’s grand finalists.
He said the conditions probably favoured his team more, being so slippery.
“It was a bit of scrappy game,” Westrupp said.
“Both sides wouldn’t be overly happy, but our guys showed a lot of heart tonight.”
The victors struck first only minutes into the game as Elliot Lewis ran freely to the tryline when he found possession in a mile of space.
Palmerston struck back the first time they found quality field position. Jerome Mapusua crashed his way across the stripe after a Crocs attacking raid on the Dragons tryline.
The scores didn’t stay even for long. Willy Manual crossed for Darwin and that was soon backed up by another fivepointer to fly half Nigel Maher.
When Palmerston played a shift to the left, Bryah Booth found open space and found his way to the in-goal despite desperate Darwin scrambling defence.
The Crocs levelled the scores with 15 minutes remaining on the back of a drive from their forward pack from close range.
However, the Dragons rose above Palmerston’s late challenge.
Jett Norris scored the match sealer after he backed up down the centre of the field.
A quick shift to the right from the Dragons backline exposed the Crocs defence on the edge.