St George Illawarra dropped Josh Dugan for disciplinary reasons and still managed to keep their NRL finals hopes alive with a 16-14 victory which snapped Penrith’s seven-match winning streak.

Representative star Dugan was a late withdrawal from Sunday’s must-win clash at Pepper Stadium after reportedly missing the team bus to the ground.

But, without him, the Dragons held onto a slender two-point lead for the final 20 minutes to keep the early season competition leaders in the hunt for the top eight.

They remain ninth, but with a far superior for-and-against to Penrith, North Queensland and Manly who are each two points ahead of them going into the final round.

The Panthers and Sea Eagles meet in round 26, meaning that, unless they draw, the Dragons will simply need to beat Canterbury next Sunday afternoon to figure in the finals.

Meanwhile Penrith’s hopes took a hit, with their first loss in eight weeks also seeing fullback Dylan Edwards leave the field with a possible medial cruciate ligament tear.

They are also without five-eighth Matt Moylan for at least another week with a hamstring injury.

If they lose next week and North Queensland and the Dragons both win, their late-season surge will count for nothing.

The Dragons had appeared shot with 23 minutes remaining.

After the Saints took a 12-8 lead to the break, Penrith threatened to take control of the match with the wind and rain at their back when Josh Mansour stepped his way over the line.

But the match swung on a one-on-one strip from Tariq Sims on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak in the 57th minute.

Sims belted the makeshift fullback and ripped the ball out of his hands and sprinted 40 metres to score.

It then allowed the Dragons to hold for a nervous final 20 minutes, after Matt Dufty and Paul Vaughan had earlier bagged tries in a see-sawing first half.