Dragons beat Sharks to stay unbeaten in NRL
SYDNEY (AP) — Winger Brett Morris scored his 100th career try as St. George-Illawarra continued its unbeaten start in the National Rugby League with a 14-12 win over Cronulla in the third round.
Morris crashed over in the fourth minute for his milestone try, then added another, pursuing a kick from Gareth Widdop, winning possession in the air and touching down to give the Dragons a 14-6 halftime lead.
John Morris scored two tries, the second of which drew Cronulla within two points at 14-12 with 12 minutes remaining but the Sharks were unable to press their comeback and St. George remained atop the premiership ladder.
The only other unbeaten side, Melbourne, will play Newcastle on Monday.
Captain Ben Creagh said the Dragons' winning start to the season was fueled by his players' strong sense of confidence in each other.
"The biggest thing I noticed was when they scored that try with 10 to go and it was 14-12, we went back behind the goal-line and blokes were keen to get back out there and defend again, to defend our lead and keep working hard for each other," Creagh said.
"That is something we were missing last year and it is great to see the guys are switched on and really working hard."
Defending champions the Sydney Roosters fought back from eight points down with five minutes remaining to beat Brisbane 30-26, inflicting the first defeat of the season on the young Broncos.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, who ran for 107 meters, scored a brilliant individual try in the 76th minute to put the Roosters back in the game and Boyd Cordner ran off a pass from halfback Mitchell Pearce to score the winner just before the final whistle.
Tuivasa-Sheck said while the win over Brisbane boosts the Roosters' confidence, they had not recaptured the form that carried them to last year's title.
"We're not there yet," he said. "We sort of won this game on talent but we've based our game on hard work and we found that we're not there yet, especially with them catching us out on short sides and things like that.
"Manly will really test us so we've got to go back to training and think of where we want to be and who we are again and go back to those little trademarks."
Matt Moylan kicked a sideline conversion after the fulltime siren to give Penrith an 18-16 win over the Bulldogs in another of the close matches that were features of the third round.
Five-eighth Jamie Soward threw a cut-out pass to create a try for winger Kevin Naiqama in the final minute and Moylan's conversion frustrated a brave Bulldogs comeback.
Wests beat Souths 25-16 and the New Zealand Warriors beat North Queensland 20-16 for their first win of the season.
