Josh Dugan of the Dragons is tackled during the round 24 NRL match between the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Gold Coast Titans. Photo / Getty Images
Josh Dugan of the Dragons is tackled during the round 24 NRL match between the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Gold Coast Titans. Photo / Getty Images
St George Illawarra have greeted Paul McGregor's appointment as full-time coach with an emphatic 34-6 win over an injury-hit Gold Coast at Kogarah.
With halves Benji Marshall and Gareth Widdop firing and the Titans unable to hold on to the ball, the visitors were blown away in a six-tries-to-one winyesterday.
The triumph kept the Dragons' finals hopes alive - they now sit a win behind eighth-placed Parramatta.
The Dragons raced to a 16-0 lead at halftime and continuing their dominance in the second half.
Marshall and Josh Dugan both left the field late with ankle injuries and are in doubt for the Dragons' trip to Brisbane on Friday.
The former Wests Tigers skipper opened the scoring in the ninth minute from a Trent Merrin offload, before the home side added to that with a 95m intercept effort to Brett Morris in the 14th minute and another to Jason Nightingale after 20 minutes.
The Titans defence conceded three tries in 10 minutes midway through the second half to Josh Dugan, Gerard Beale and Troy Thompson.
Daniel Mortimer tried hard for the visitors and put on the Titans' sole try for Anthony Don in the 67th minute.
Meanwhile, Cronulla's season from hell looks certain to end with the NRL wooden spoon after they went down 22-12 to Canberra yesterday.
The Sharks had 17 first-grade players missing because of injury and Asada suspensions.
In a first half that resembled two bald men fighting over a comb with neither side playing like they wanted the win, the Sharks finished with a 51 per cent completion rate and the Raiders a woeful 49 per cent.
Cronulla broke the deadlock four minutes before the break when Blake Ayshford caught the Raiders' defence napping and his kick forward was pounced upon by Sosaia Feki with Michael Gordon kicking the extras.
Ricky Stuart's side were much improved after the break with Anthony Milford seizing control and scoring two tries and setting up two more. Matt McIlwrick was in the right place to dive on a perfectly flighted kick from Milford. Then Jarrod Croker acrobatically dived on to a Jack Wighton kick to score.
The Sharks pressed forward and were rewarded with a try from prop Tim Robinson. Milford had the final word with his second four-pointer 10 minutes from time to seal a win for the Raiders.
