Moltzen hat-trick sinks Dragons' season

Updated August 11, 2012 23:23:09

Wests Tigers full-back Tim Moltzen ignored taunts from the St George Illawarra faithful to bag a hat-trick in Saturday night's 22-12 win that all but ended the Dragons season.

In utterly atrocious wind and rain, and in front of a surprisingly large Sydney Football Stadium crowd of 10,546, the Tigers became the first team to successfully overturn a Dragons half-time lead this season.

They claimed three second-half tries after trailing 8-4 at the break.

And it was all on the back of Moltzen, who scored one before half-time before sealing the game with a second-half double - including a controversial four-pointer in the 51st minute.

Moltzen pounced on a Robbie Farah grubber to give the home side an eight-point lead but replays seemed inconclusive as to whether he had beaten Dragons back-rower Ben Creagh to the ball.

Video referee Bernard Sutton watched more than a dozen replays before awarding a benefit-of-the-doubt try, extending the Tigers lead after an earlier Liam Fulton four-pointer.

Tigers utility back Beau Ryan and half-back Benji Marshall praised their classy full-back.

"That Dragons Army were getting into him and he had his little earmuffs on and he played very well. I'm proud of him," Ryan said.

Marshall added: "I thought he really stood up tonight ... his most dangerous game is probably his running game so to see him run in that try just before half-time, I knew he was pretty switched on."

Moltzen denied his match-winning performance felt any better because it came against the team he refused to join in the off-season, despite signing a three-year deal last year.

But it was certainly a more impressive showing than his effort against them in round three at Kogarah this year when Moltzen had a forgettable afternoon - making three errors in a 36-12 thrashing.

"For me personally it was about doing my job for the team," Moltzen said.

"I could have been coming up against anyone and it wouldn't have been any different.

"All that stuff's in the past for me and this was just another game. I've moved on and just happy to get the two points."

The Dragons bolted to an early eight-point lead through unconverted tries to winger Brett Morris, who also scored in the second half, and hooker Mitch Rein after just 14 minutes.

The loss leaves the Dragons four points behind eighth spot with a poor for and against and just three matches remaining, but moves the Tigers to 26 points and potentially one win from securing a finals berth.

"We can (make the finals) but it's out of our hands," an exasperated skipper Ben Hornby said.

"Now we've got to hope for teams to win and teams to lose. Win all our games. We're in the position now where it's not in our hands."

Coach Steve Price would not comment on the controversial Moltzen try but admitted to having frustration at their diminished finals chances.

"We put ourselves in that situation, we've got no one else to blame there but ourselves," he said.

Dragons five-eighth Nathan Fien was taken to hospital with a neck injury in the 50th minute with Jamie Soward finishing the game in the halves after starting on the bench.

AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, sydney-2000, nsw, australia

First posted August 11, 2012 21:25:33

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Cronk field goal sinks Broncos

Updated August 17, 2012 23:43:20

A Cooper Cronk field goal in the shadows of full-time gave Melbourne a 19-18 victory over Brisbane at Lang Park.

Cronk sank the hearts of New South Wales fans when he landed a decisive field goal in State of Origin III at the same venue last month and this time it was Broncos' supporters who were left to lament the cool head of the Storm playmaker.

He slotted the one-pointer in the 74th minute after the Broncos had levelled scores at 18-18 when Ben Te'o crossed for his second try and Peter Wallace added the conversion.

The defeat is the Broncos' fifth in a row and while they are expected to remain inside the top eight at the conclusion of round 24, it has hardly helped their campaign towards a finals berth.

They entered the round in seventh place on 26 points, ahead of Wests Tigers by a superior for-and-against.

But the Tigers' 23-22 loss to competition leaders Canterbury on Friday night helped the Broncos' cause, although a sizeable Newcastle victory over Manly this weekend will see the Knights leapfrog Anthony Griffin's troops.

Cronk was reluctant to reflect on his match-winning effort, preferring to offer the Broncos advice on how to turn their form around, in light of the Storm's recent losing streak.

"We had our problems a month ago," he told Grandstand.

"But we are an honest group and we had some good feedback from one another, and sometimes you've got to take two steps backwards to move forward."

The Broncos led 12-6 at half-time after tries to centre Justin Hodges (sixth minute) and Te'o (15th minute), both converted by Wallace.

But, just as the Broncos did against the Bulldogs the previous weekend, the home side let the Storm grab a crucial try just before the break to winger Sisa Waqa, who appeared to lose control of the ball before grounding it with his torso.

Video referee Paul Simpkins had a number of looks from different angles before flashing the green light.

Cronk's boot also led to the Storm's first try after half-time when his grubber hit the heavily padded right hand post.

He swooped through to grab the rebound for the equaliser.

The visitors hit the lead in the 50th minute with Waqa the beneficiary of yet another perfectly-placed Cronk kick, which bounced favourably for the Storm winger.

Te'o set the scene for a grandstand finish, crashing over off a deft Ben Hunt pass in the 71st minute for a Wallace conversion to lock the match up 18-18.

Cronk snapped the match winner from 25 metres out, having not only done so for the Maroons in Origin III, but also for the Storm when they beat the Broncos at Lang Park last season.

Storm forward Bryan Norrie could be in trouble after being placed on report for leading with his elbow.

Brisbane captain Sam Thaiday came reeling out of a tackle on Norrie in the 69th minute, angering the bumper crowd of 41,467.

Melbourne: 19 (S Waqa 2, C Cronk tries; C Smith 3/3 cons; C Cronk FG)

Brisbane: 18 (B Te'o 2, J Hodges tries; P Wallace 3/3 cons)

AAP/ABC

Tags: nrl, rugby-league, sport, brisbane-4000, melbourne-3000

First posted August 17, 2012 21:31:22

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Coote sinks Dragons

Updated May 15, 2012 08:54:19

Penrith full-back Lachlan Coote kicked a field goal in golden point extra time to edge out St George Illawarra 13-12 at Panthers Stadium.

Coote, under heavy defensive pressure, slotted the winning field goal off his left foot to give the Panthers just their third win of the season.

The Panthers had led 12-0 through converted tries to Ryan Simpkins and Kevin Kingston in the first half, before the Dragons launched a fight back inside the final 15 minutes to post tries through Jake Marketo and Mitch Rein.

Kyle Stanley kicked both conversions for the Dragons.

The win ended a run of eight successive home defeats for the Panthers, stretching back to round 19 last year, and vindicated Ivan Cleary's controversial decision to dump New South Wales centre Michael Jennings to their feeder club Windsor.

Cleary denied his decision to axe Jennings had been a wake-up call to the rest of his squad, saying it was only a matter of time until they ended their wretched run of results.

"Our boys have been trying hard every week and it was going to come right at some stage," he said.

"We have been down on a bit of confidence and although we didn't get as much ball as we would have liked in the first half, it was probably a good thing to win that way."

The hosts laid the foundations for the win with two tries in as many first-half minutes from Simpkins and Kingston as the Dragons, who were without injured five-eighth Jamie Soward, failed to fire in attack, just as they did in last week's 30-6 loss to North Queensland.

Simpkins put the hosts in front with his first ever NRL try after 18 minutes after good work out of dummy-half from Kingston.

Kingston then doubled the lead in almost identical fashion, darting over from close range in front of the posts, allowing Blake Austin to kick his second goal of the match.

The Dragons finally troubled the scorers in the 67th minute when Marketo put the finishing touches to a well-worked move and Stanley added the extras to halve the deficit.

Rein then added a second five minutes from time after Dayne Weston was penalised for putting his hands in the ball as the Panthers desperately tried to repel the fast finishing Dragons.

Ben Hornby failed with a field goal for the Dragons in the extra period, but Coote made no mistake with a 25-metre effort to delight the home crowd and seal a first win in six matches for the Panthers.

Dragons coach Steve Price's miserable evening was compounded by a serious looking knee injury to Michael Weyman, who was carried off after making a tackle on Josh Mansour early in the second half.

Utility Nathan Fien also limped off in the final minute of normal time leaving forcing prop Dan Hunt to fill the playmaker role in golden point.

Panthers: 13 (R Simpkins, K Kingston tries; B Austin 2 cons; L Coote FG)

Dragons: 12 (J Marketo, M Rein tries; K Stanley 2 cons)

AAP/ABC

Tags: nrl, rugby-league, sport, penrith-2750, kogarah-2217, wollongong-2500

First posted May 14, 2012 21:00:17

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Inglis' golden boot sinks Tigers

Updated April 01, 2012 20:27:15

Greg Inglis sneaked a field goal in off the upright to hand South Sydney an amazing 17-16 golden point comeback win over Wests Tigers at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.

With his side having somehow managed to escape from a 16-4 hole with four minutes remaining to force their game with Wests Tigers into extra time, Inglis perched himself on the 30 metre line, 20 metres behind the play.

What followed was a mongrel punt off the boot, a kick which touched a defender's hand, clipped the left hand upright and bobbled over the crossbar to spark pandemonium on the field for the men wearing red and green.

"It was a bit shaky off the boot but in the end it went over," said Inglis, who was jumping for joy from the moment he kicked it.

"I thought it was (touched), the pocket ref was saying it was ... it probably helped flick it over.

"I was hoping (it went over), I was pushing it ... I was glad it went over otherwise I looked like a fool if it didn't."

For Souths, this was one they got back after losing one in similar circumstances in the season opener against the Sydney Roosters, who also scored two late tries.

Issac Luke scored his second of the afternoon four minutes from time to give his side hope at 16-10 in the 76th minute, before Dave Taylor grubbered on the last roll of the dice for rookie Andrew Everingham to touch down two minutes from full-time.

"I'm probably still trying to believe that we actually won," coach Michael Maguire said.

"We've spoken about playing for 80 minutes and we played right to the death and we came up with a bit of joy at the end.

"We've taken a step forward."

Tigers coach Tim Sheens lamented his sides poor discipline in the late meltdown.

"We just gave too many penalties away," he said.

"We walked them down there, we walked them down, we walked them down.

"We're the most penalised side in the comp so we've got to do something about that."

Inglis may have proved the hero but he was not on his own for the Rabbitohs, with rookie half-back Adam Reynolds coming of age with a mature performance.

Never was it displayed more than with his pressure-cooker conversion five metres in from the sideline with his team trailing by two just before the final hooter - with the knowledge that he had fluffed a much simpler attempt earlier in the game still fresh in his mind.

"The first one was a shocker, so I was a bit nervous with the second one," Reynolds said.

"Fortunately, I hit it well and it went over.

"I get all the boys to gee me up at training, try to put a bit of pressure on.

"It's another kick, but there was more pressure on."

With just one win from their previous four games, Inglis knew this result was a big one.

"Very important, being one from five would have been devastating," Inglis said.

"We're playing good footy, and the confidence within the team's just building and building."

So too are the nerves as they sweat on scans for big English forward Sam Burgess, who limped off after 24 minutes with a knee injury.

He will have scans on Monday, with Souths officials hoping the initial diagnosis of a strained medial ligament proves true.

"It's quite painful, we'll just have to see tomorrow," Burgess said.

"I don't know how much (time out) we're looking at."

They will also be sweating on the match review committee's findings after Michael Crocker was put on report for a high tackle on Tim Moltzen that mirrored his hit on Manly full-back Brett Stewart in the 2007 grand final.

The Tigers did not escape unscathed either with another Englishman in Gareth Ellis limping off with a suspected fractured foot.

Rabbitohs: 17 (I Luke 2, A Everingham tries; A Reynolds 2/3 conversions, G Inglis field goal)

Tigers: 16 (T Moltzen, L Tuqiri, B Ayshford tries; B Marshall 2/3 conversions)

AAP

Tags: nrl, rugby-league, sport, sydney-2000, sydney-south-2000, australia, leichhardt-2040, nsw

First posted April 01, 2012 17:00:47

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Slater sinks Blues with late try

Published:Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:10 AEST

Queensland players celebrate after Billy Slater scored the winning try during State of Origin I between Queensland and New South Wales at Lang Park in Brisbane on May 25, 2011.

Tags: sport, rugby-league, state-of-origin, nsw, qld, brisbane-4000

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