St George Illawarra have recovered from a Ben Hunt horror show to resuscitate their NRL season with a 20-10 victory over Wests Tigers.
In a night of contrasting fortunes for the Dragons, Hunt turned in a shocker before Paul McGregor's side released the pressure valve with an ugly yet tense win at Leichhardt Oval.
Even after losing five of their previous six, the Dragons have remarkably re-entered the top four - after Penrith lost earlier on Saturday - to keep their premiership dream alive.
Those ambitions had looked dead and buried and coach Paul McGregor managed a smile when he was asked about whether the result would end speculation about his future.
"It's been a different week so to get a nice result like we did today, under the circumstances, I can say it's the best win I've had as a coach since I've been at the club," McGregor said.
"Considering the start of the game, the 6-0 penalty count, one in the bin, the opposition playing for their season, the scrtuinty that players and staff have been under.
"To come out and have the resolve we had today, it just shows what we've built our year on."
Even with the motivation of the game possibly marking Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall's last at the Tigers' spiritual home, the joint venture couldn't get it done in front of a fervent crowd of 18,837.
The result leaves Ivan Cleary's side four points outside the eight with two games remaining.
With playmaking partner Gareth Widdop (shoulder) out until the finals, the pressure was on Hunt to steady the ship after a poor post-Origin period.
The Queensland and Australian representative had old wounds prised open when he spilled the ball from the kick-off for the second-half.
The incident was shades of his infamous drop in the 2015 grand final and he had salt rubbed into his wounds when he missed an inside shoulder tackle for Chris Lawrence's try which made it 6-4 the next set.
After a first-half in which he also kicked out on the full and dropped the ball over the line, he was sin-binned in the 53rd minute, allowing Esan Marsters to even the scores.
Yet the Tigers' couldn't capitalise in the 10 minutes Hunt was off, with the Dragons re-gaining the lead through a Lafai penalty before running away with it.
"Ben's a part of our 17 and he'll always be a part of our 17 while I'm the coach," McGregor said of his often-maligned playmaker.
When Robbie Farah copped a dubious knock-on call 10 metres from his own line, St George iced the game with a Luciano Leilua barge over before stand-in captain Tyson Frizell put the icing on the cake.
"We knew we were playing a team that would be lacking a bit of confidence," Cleary said.
"We were pretty keen to not allow them to get some confidence back and that's what we did."
Share
