Dragons surge late to overcome New Zealand after the Warriors as Mikaele Ravalawa hits hat-trick

The Dragons overcame a slump either side of halftime and losing the lead to a missed forward pass to pull away from the Warriors late and kick their year off with a 28-16 victory.

St George Illawarra fans had every right to be up in arms when referee Peter Gough missed Shaun Johnson chucking the ball forward for Eliesa Katoa to cross in the 47th minute, giving the Warriors their first lead of the game at 16-14.

The Dragons had started strongly, pulling out a 12-0 lead on the back of tries to Mikaela Ravalawa and Jack Bird, but gave the crowd flashbacks to their torrid 2021 season when they lost direction, fell off tackles and made shocking errors in defence to let the home team back into it.

Mikaele Ravalawa of the Dragons scored a hat-trick of tries in their 28-16 win over the Warriors

Jack Gosiewski committed the cardinal sin of shooting out of the defensive line to open a yawning gap that led to a Wayde Egan four-pointer after rising star Tyrrell Sloan decided not to play at a Dallin Watene-Zelazniak grubber that he recovered for another score.

Sloan later admitted he was ‘stupid’ for letting it go, but it was a blip on an otherwise sound game from the 19-year-old, who threw the last pass for his team’s first two scores – kicking things off with a brilliant cut-out.

The rot continued for the joint venture after the break before they returned to what worked well for them in the first half and finished all over the top of the Kiwis.

Mikaela Ravalawa scored a hat-trick in a powerful display that saw him rumble for 173 metres and three line breaks, with Zac Lomax once again showing he’s one of the NRL’s masters of the flick pass as he shot the ball out the back for the Fijian’s last try.

Ben Hunt picked up where he left off in the Charity Shield win over Souths, and would have gone over himself if Chanel Harris-Tavita hadn’t pulled him up in a desperate tackle after the half threw a dummy and charged through just shy of the goal line.

Shaun Johnson was strong in his highly anticipated return for the Warriors, drawing that awful error out of Gosiewski with smart play before the line, and pulling off a 40-20 that put them in position for Katoa’s score.

One area of concern for coach Anthony Griffin will be the Warriors’ dominance in the offloads department, where they doubled the Dragons’ tally.