Fired up Dragons
Dragons in the 2016 regular season.
Indeed, St George Illawarra scored more points yesterday than they did in the first six rounds last year.
Last year the Dragons were bereft of attacking flair and more of the same was expected this time around without the retired Ben Creagh, no more Benji Marshall, and the pre-Christmas ruptured ACL suffered by fiveeighth Drew Hutchison.
McGregor had a plan to combat this – he wanted his side to score points by going through teams, not around them, and that’s exactly what they did.
Thompson started the rout on the left edge, surging through to score after four minutes after a McInnes pass. Twenty minutes later he touched down on the same blade of grass, this time fed by Widdop.
Waqa Blake acrobatically opened the Panthers’ account before de Belin produced a storming charge reminiscent of Raider Steve Jackson in the 1989 grand final to give the Dragons an 18-4 halftime lead.
The rout continued after the break with Widdop scoring twice, including a superb try next to the posts after a deft infield kick by McCrone.
McInnes did even better on 54 minutes, finishing off a freakish play which started with a Josh Dugan grubber kick and regather.
Thompson’s third late in the contest iced the cake and confirmed that the Dragons mean business this season. Penrith needs to awaken from their preseason slumber immediately, or face more pain against the Wests Tigers next weekend. The Sun-Herald