Gareth Widdop has shrugged off a nerve-jarring car accident just hours before kick-off to write himself into the St George Illawarra history books.
Widdop was involved in a worrying accident in which his car was T-boned and written off before joining the Dragons' 500-point club in their 26-12 NRL win over the Warriors at UOW Jubilee Oval on Sunday.
The Dragons five-eighth was the only occupant when his vehicle collided with a car being driven by an elderly driver on the Princess Highway on Sunday afternoon.
The car will be taken to the wreckers and, luckily for Widdop, coach Paul McGregor came across the scene and called for a tow truck before giving his skipper a lift to the ground.
"He had a car accident on the way so he's done a really good job," McGregor said.
"The car's written off so to put that aside is a credit to the skipper."
Widdop, still rattled, was reluctant to talk about the incident but quipped: "I won't be seeing it again, put it that way.
"I'll be riding my pushbike to training the next few weeks.:"
With his fifth goal of the match, Widdop became just the third player in the history of the joint venture to score 500 points and sits behind only Jamie Soward and Mark Riddell on the club's all-time scorer's list.
Prop Paul Vaughan paid credit to his skipper, describing his ability to shrug off his jangled nerves and lead the side to its third win from four games this year as inspiring.
"I came up with (under-20s prop) Blake Lawrie and we were coming down the road and got held up in an accident," Vaughan said.
"I was actually really nervous because I thought we were going to be late to the game.
"I drove past and I saw what I thought was Gareth's car and we got here on time luckily.
"He was a little bit shaken up but to his credit he's a true professional."
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