Topic: Young Dragons Dissect Raiders For The Win

Renee

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Young Dragons Dissect Raiders For The Win
« on: July 25, 2011, 09:09:16 PM »
Young Dragons Dissect Raiders For The Win

The St George Illawarra Dragons Toyota Cup team reaffirmed their desire for final’s football with a 50-12 win over the Canberra Raiders at Canberra Stadium on Monday.

The Young Dragons scored nine tries en route to the victory, with Todd Ryan, Kyle Martens, Kane Gillies, Nathan Green, Evander Cummins and Jamie Stanley all crossing over, to move themselves only a point adrift of competition’s top eight.

Head Coach Adrian Lam opted for a strong line-up for the encounter in the nation’s capital and his faith was rewarded with a flurry of first-half points as his stalwarts headed into the sheds 34-6 leaders at the interval.

Young Dragons winger Kyle Martens was the stand-out performer for the visitors during the 40-minute period, managing to bag a hat-trick of tries as reward for his unbeatable pace down the right-flank.

The former Dragons SG Ball player, promoted to the Under-20 ranks in recent weeks, struck his first dent in the Raiders’ armour 14-minutes into play after darting his way down the touchline to score, complimenting five-eighth Todd Ryans’ previous points-grab seven minutes prior.

Versatile centre Kane Gillies, who converted seven of his nine attempts from the spot in the fixture, got himself on the score sheet six minutes later, after making a break of his own to plant the ball just ajar of the centre sticks.

However, Martens was not to be out done and rounded off his trifecta of tries shortly thereafter – both times making the most of unmarked space again down the flank.

Centre Nathan Green got himself into the action with a neat try on the eve of the interval, having himself been the beneficiary of some crisp passing by his teammates to put him through, which was enough to negate Raiders’ winger Chris Medcalf’s try and conversion combination three minutes earlier.

Yet the cheer of the home side was in full force when second half play resumed, with the Raiders starting the half the stronger of the two teams.

Their constant pressuring down the centre was soon rewarded with centre Sami Sauiluma penetrating the Dragons defence down the middle just before the hour mark, offering Medcalf prime-positioning for his follow-up boot.

But any glimpse of a Raiders fight back was soon expunged by a succinct double by fullback Evander Cummins, who on both occasions dodged his marker to plant the ball under the posts, to round out a banner week in which he was selected for the Australian Schoolboys team.

Debutant Jamie Stanley, another member of the Dragons SG Ball team, rounded-out the visitors’ half-century of points four minutes from fulltime to gift his team a final score of 50-12.

Dragons: 50. Tries: Martens (3), Cummins (2), Ryan, Gillies, Green, Stanley. Goals: Gillies (7/9).

Raiders: 12. Tries: . Medcalf, Sauiluma Goals: Medcalf (2/2).

Source:   dragons.com.au