St. George Illawarra were too classy for a Broncos outfit who sorely missed the guidance of their skipper Darren Lockyer. Dragons winger Jason Nightingale scored a double to sink the Broncos chances. From early in the piece it looked as though the Dragons need only stick to their gameplan to take the two points, as the Broncos looked toothless in attack and not much better in defence.

The match had huge hype around it due to Wendell Sailors return, and the Dell lived up to the hype in the third minute with his first foray providing a penalty to the Dragons and a bit of pushing and shoving, and heated words between himself and Corey Parker. Nothing came of that though and it was Ben Hornby who scored the first try in the eighth minute, after a well aimed Jamie Soward grubber kick found the post and rebounded for Hornby to touch down.

Ben Creagh and Dean Young made great inroads in the next set to have Brisbane back pedalling and earned a penalty which Soward kicked to make the score 8-0. Successive penalties were then traded before Dean Young scooted from dummy half to score what looked a soft try beside the posts. Soward converted to leave the Broncos trailing 14-0 and looking like it was not going to be their night.

What followed were two almost identical kicks out on the full from the Dragons and with a penalty to the Broncos thrown in for good measure, it meant Brisbane had a great chance to score. That they did in the 27th minute with a nice offload by Corey Parker to Greg Eastwood who stepped twice at close range and planted the ball over the line, to bring the score back to 14-6 Dragons.

The Broncos then kicked out on the full to give the Dragons possession and it was brother to brother as Josh Morris stood in the tackle to offload to Brett, who showed his jet boots to race 50 metres to score wide out. That made the score 20-6 with nine minutes left in the half and that was the way the score stayed to half time.

To the disappointment of the crowd, it was announced that big Wendell had fractured his cheek bone and would not be returning to the field. Was it an elbow? There weren't too many replays of the incident so it is in the hands of the Match Review Committee.

The Broncos had their best chance in the first 15 minutes of the second half when they scored a fortuitous try through Tonie Carroll who did well to be in the right place as the ball bounced wickedly for the Dragons. That made the score 20-10 and the Dragons looked like they might be tiring. However that was not to be, and the Dragons held on and scored the match-winner through Jason Nightingale in the 61st minute after a Soward bomb from 40 metres out was tapped back to Josh Morris, who looped the ball over to Nightingale to score in the corner. Nightingale added another soon after and it was curtains for the Broncos.

So, a fourth win in succession for the Dragons and things are looking up for the red & whites. The Broncos will be glad to have their representative stars back next round, and one positive they should take from the match is that they cannot play much worse than they did tonight.

Match Details
St George Illawarra Dragons 28 def Brisbane Broncos 10
Round 13 - June 6th, 2008 7:45pm
Venue: WIN Stadium
Referee: Ben Cummins
Half time: Dragons 20-6
Crowd: 11,432

St George Illawarra Dragons (28)
Tries: Ben Hornby, Dean Young, Brett Morris, Jason Nightingale (2)
Goals: Jamie Soward (4/6)
Brisbane Broncos (10)
Tries: Greg Eastwood, Tonie Carroll
Goals: Michael Ennis (1/2)

LeagueUnlimited.com Player of the Match
3 Points: Ben Creagh (Dragons)
2 Points: Ben Hornby (Dragons)
1 Point: Dean Young (Dragons)

LeagueUnlimited.com Live Commentary
Good evening all and welcome to League Unlimited’s live update of the match at WIN Stadium tonight between St. George Illawarra and a young looking Brisbane outfit.
St. George Illawarra will be minus their two star centres, Cooper and Gasnier and Brisbane are missing Hunt, Boyd, Lockyer, Thaiday, Wallace and Hannant who are all away on Origin duty. Justin Hodges will miss the first of six matches tonight after being suspended midweek for a late, late spear tackle.
I don’t know about you, but I’m Dell – irious with excitement. They’re calling it the ‘Dell Cup’, or ‘Dell-o-rama’ but one thing is for sure, it will be a dell – ectable feast of rugby league if he can dell – iver the goods. Apologies folks, got a bit carried away with the bad puns…
Yes, Wendell Sailor will make his return to rugby league after almost seven years away from the game. And the script-writers couldn’t have done any better being that he returns to face his former team and former wise old mentor Mr. W. Bennett.
Here are the teams for tonights game:

DRAGONS: 1. Brett Morris 2. Jason Nightingale 3. Josh Morris 4. Chase Stanley 5. Wendell Sailor 6. Jamie Soward 7. Ben Hornby 8. Justin Poore 9. Dean Young 10. Jason Ryles 11. Beau Scott 12. Ben Creagh 13. Stuart Webb
Interchange: 14. Jarrod Saffy 15. Dan Hunt 16. Lagi Setu 17. Rangi Chase 18. Kirk Reynoldson 19. Ricky Thorby
BRONCOS: 1. Josh Hoffman 2. Denan Kemp 3. Joel Moon 4. Nick Emmett 5. Reece Robinson 6. David Stagg 7. PJ Marsh 8. Dave Taylor 9. Michael Ennis 10. Joel Clinton 11. Corey Parker 12. Ashton Sims 13. Tonie Carroll
Interchange: 14. Greg Eastwood 15. Nick Kenny 16. Isaak Ah Mau 17. Shane Perry

Kickoff has been delayed for five minutes due to crowd issues. Temperature 15 degrees at present. Looks like a clear night.

Teams coming out onto the ground now.

Broncos running towards the Southern end, kickoff and we are underway.

2 min: PENALTY Broncos - Dragons lying all over the play the ball

3 min: PENALTY Dragons - Broncos inside the ten on Wendell's first touch. Few words exchanged. Nothing serious.

6 min: Great bomb by Soward from 25 out. Well taken by Hoffman, but driven 5 metres back into the in goal. Dropout Broncos.

8 min: TRY St George Illawarra Dragons
Soward kicks hard along the ground, the ball bounce off the left post and Ben Hornby touches down for the first try of the night. Conversion attempt by Jamie Soward successful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 6-0

10 min: Fantastic set of six from the Dragons. Creagh made great ground and Soward kicks well again to find touch 6 metres out from the Broncos line.

12 min: PENALTY GOAL St George Illawarra Dragons
Broncos silly pass, found offside, Soward slots it.
St George Illawarra Dragons 8-0

15 min: Broncos forward pass. Dragons feed 40 metres out from the broncos line.

16 min: PENALTY Broncos - Hornby made a great bust and was only caught in the last line 10 metres out, then drops the ball. Broncos off the hook.

17 min: PENALTY Dragons - Ennis ruled to have jumped too early from marker. Great kick from Soward finds touch 25 metres from the Broncos line.

20 min: TRY St George Illawarra Dragons
Dean Young scores running from dumy half. Looked to be a soft try. Great leadup work by Ben Creagh who is showing his class tonight. Conversion attempt by Jamie Soward successful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 14-0

22 min: Dragons kick out on the full after another great set following the try. Dean Young looks in ominous form tonight. Broncos feed 40 metres from their own line.

25 min: Soward kicks out on the full!! Broncos feed 40 metres from the Dragons line.

26 min: PENALTY Broncos - Dragons holding on in the tackle. May have been milked by Corey Parker though.

27 min: TRY Brisbane Broncos
Nice offload by Corey Parker to the kiwi Greg Eastwood who stepped twice from 6 metres out to score a decent try. Couple of errors by the Dragons led to that try. Conversion attempt by Michael Ennis successful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 14-6

28 min: PENALTY Broncos - This will help the Broncos get out of their own half. Dragons not standing straight at marker.

29 min: Broncos kick the ball out on the full!! It's catching. Dragons feed ten metres their side of halfway.

31 min: TRY St George Illawarra Dragons
Brotherly love. Josh Morris shows great strength to stand in the tackle and offload to his brother Brett who runs 50 metres and is too quick for the chasing Tonie Carroll. Conversion attempt by Jamie Soward successful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 20-6

34 min: PENALTY Broncos - Ryles again not square at marker. The referee Cummings has a word to Hornby about their constant infringing at marker.

35 min: INJURY - Wendell getting attention with a head injury behind his own line. Doesn't look too serious though. Recovers though to help take Corey Parker out over the sideline and it's a Dragons feed 5 metres out from their own line.

39 min: Dropout Dragons - Ennis kicks well from 20 metres out and Dragons through Brett Morris forced to take it dead.

40 min: Big Dell has an air swing as Broncos look to score with a kick to the wing on the last play of the half.

HALF TIME: The Dragons look the goods. Dean Young and Ben Hornby are running their team around superbly. Jamie Soward's kicking game is first class, apart from one blemish and Ben Creagh looks strong.
If the Dragons can get rid of the silly penalties, they will surely be too strong for this Broncos side, who look like a team without much of a clue in attack. Wendell looks solid without being too flashy.
PENALTIES: 6-3 Brisbane
SCRUMS: 4-3 St. George Illawarra
LINE BREAKS: 3-1 St. George Illawarra
MISSED TACKLES: 17-16 Brisbane

Players coming out now for the second half.

Hornby kicks off and we are underway.

41 min: INJURY Wendell Sailor has a fractured cheekbone and will not return this evening. The big fella did not return from the half time break. Tragic for Wendell.

44 min: PENALTY Broncos - Hoffman is taken high close to his own line.

45 min: VIDEO REF DECISION - Possible Dragons try from a scrappy piece of play where Soward kicked a loose ball through from 45 metres out and if this is a try it is well played young fella because just about everyone stopped.

45 min: NO TRY - Poore ruled to have knocked on.

47 min: VIDEO REF DECISION - Possible Broncos try. Chip kick from 40 metres out and a wicked bounce for the Dragons. Tonie Carroll dives on the ball and it looks like it could be an unlikely try.

48 min: TRY Brisbane Broncos
Benefit of the doubt. Great work by Carroll to chase down that kick when it looked like nothing was on. Not much that can be done when the ball bounces like that! Conversion attempt by Michael Ennis unsuccessful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 20-10

49 min: PENALTY Broncos - Piggy back penalty out of their own half again. This will help their cause.

50 min: PENALTY Broncos - Another for not standing correctly at marker. I count 4 of those now.

51 min: Dropout Dragons. Eastwood kicks ahead and a good chase means the Dragons have little option but to run it over the dead ball line.

Both teams grinding this one out now.

60 min: Match starting to look a little like touch football as both sides are flat-footed and throwing the ball all over the park but not much forward movement.

61 min: TRY St George Illawarra Dragons
Soward kicks from 40 metres out, Hornby chases well and taps it back to Josh Morris who feeds Jason Nightingale to go over in the left corner. Conversion attempt by Jamie Soward unsuccessful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 24-10

65 min: Dragons lose the ball in the first set and it's a Broncos ball 20 metres from the Dragons line.

66 min: Broncos lose the ball through an Ashton Sims knock on and that's a pressure release for the Dragons.

67 min: Dragons knock on through Ryles attempting a speculator, and it's a Broncos scrum feed 25 metres from the Dragons line.

69 min: Double knock on. Broncos feed the scrum 30 metres from their own line.

71 min: Raking kick from Soward finds touch 15 metres from the Broncos line. Broncos scrum feed.

The Dragons would be killing their coach tonight. They are throwing the ball from side to side like they are behind on the scoreboard for some reason.

75 min: TRY St George Illawarra Dragons
On the back of a penalty for stripping, a Rangi Chase looping pass finds Nightingale on the touch line who jinks inside twice to swivel and place the ball over the line. Great strength shown by the winger. Conversion attempt by Jamie Soward unsuccessful.
St George Illawarra Dragons 28-10

77 min: PENALTY Dragons - Piggyback penalty to the Dragons and can they score one more before the night is over.

78 min: Dragons lose the ball after PJ Marsh puts a hit on the much bigger Poore and he spills the pill.

FULLTIME: Broncos looked ordinary without their origin stars, lacking spark. The Dragons put together their fourth win in a row and have a bye next week so the finals could beckon for the red & whites in 2008.

That's all for tonight here at WIN Stadium. Thanks for joining us at League Unlimited and we look forward to seeing you back here soon.
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