Young five-eighth Corey Norman scored his first try in the No.6 jumper as Brisbane withstood a second-half NRL comeback to down St George Illawarra 28-20 at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
Down 24-0 at halftime, the Dragons scored three tries between the 52nd and 63rd minute through winger Jason Nightingale, centre Kyle Stanley and fullback Brett Morris to cut the margin back to 24-16.
The scoreline was not as close as last September when an injured Darren Lockyer – the champion five-eighth Norman has replaced – kicked a field goal in golden point with a fractured cheekbone to end the Dragons’ 2011 season.
But the drama and theatre was there again as the Dragons threatened one of the great comeback wins of modern times.
Norman will always remember his first try in the No.6 six jumper worn by former champions Wally Lewis, Kevin Walters and Lockyer.
He wrong-footed the defence and showed good strength to wrestle the ball to the ground in the tackle of Dragons fullback Brett Morris in the seventh minute.
The tries kept flowing on the back of a glut of possession with halfback Peter Wallace crossing in the 17th minute and hooker Andrew McCullough embarrassing some poor marker defence to score out of dummy half in the 22nd minute for an 18-0 lead.
When New Zealand back-rower Alex Glenn grabbed Brisbane’s fourth converted try in the 35th minute, the road back looked too far for the visitors.
But the Dragons had other ideas and came out prepared to attack through halfback Ben Hornby and Jamie Soward and with more possession they rattled Brisbane’s defence out wide.
Kiwi Test winger Nightingale finally gave Dragons’ fans in the crowd of 38,012 something to cheer about when he got his team on the scoreboard.
When centre Stanley crossed four minutes later and Morris raced onto a cheeky kick by Soward from a scrum win 30m out in the 63rd minute, the Dragons were well and truly back in the contest.
Man-of-the-match Matt Gillett, however, put the comeback to bed with Brisbane’s fifth try after winger Gerard Beale twice got his boot to the ball to extend the lead to 28-16.
Dragons forward Matt Prior, whose older brother Jake died of a heart attack last week, scored in the 75th minute.
The first-half match stats told the story with the Dragons forced to make 185 tackles to Brisbane’s 98.
As a result Brisbane ran riot, making 686 metres with the ball in the first 40 minutes as opposed to 381 by the visitors.
The win was was Brisbane’s 10th from their past 11 games at Suncorp with their only loss being to North Queensland in round two when fullback Matty Bowen scored in the last minute.
