Wests Tigers have moved into the competition’s top four to start 2015 with a comprehensive 22-4 win over the St. George-Illawarra Dragons on Monday night.
With James Tedesco scoring tries and setting them up alike, Wests Tigers raced to a 20-0 lead after 28 minutes of play, before preserving a second-half clean sheet to take an 18-point win from the match and ensure back-to-back wins to start season 2015.
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· The win marks the first time since 2008 that Wests Tigers have won back-to-back games to start the season, and just the third time in the Club’s history.
· Wests Tigers have never won their first three matches of a season.
· Wests Tigers kept the Dragons scoreless in the second half tonight; the third time they have managed to do that in the 32 matches between these two sides.
· Wests Tigers have now recorded three second half clean sheets (R19, 2014 vs. Bulldogs; R26, 2014 vs. Sharks; R2, 2015 vs. Dragons) from their last 10 matches, and have the second-best defensive record across the NRL from the opening two games of the year.
· Wests Tigers ended a run of six straight Monday night defeats this weekend.
· Monday became the first time that Wests Tigers have defeated the Dragons at Campbelltown, having never beaten them there in their two previous encounters.
· With two tries in this game to go with his two tries in Round 1, Pat Richards is currently the leading try-scorer in the NRL, having finished 2014 as the Club’s leading try-scorer. His two tries see him move past Brett Hodgson for the most tries for the Club — currently sitting equal seventh now with 39 tries — while his 14 points see him move to equal fourth with Chris Lawrence for most points for the Club — currently with 278 points from his 61 appearances.
· James Tedesco scored his first NRL try at Campbelltown Sports Stadium, and has now scored a try in 11 of his last 14 games for Wests Tigers.
· After becoming the 180th player to play first-grade for Wests Tigers last weekend, Kevin Naiqama scored his first try for Wests Tigers against the Dragons.
· Aaron Woods again led all players on the ground with a staggering 246 metres, while fellow starting prop Keith Galloway adding 175 metres. In all, seven Wests Tigers players made more than 100 metres, while five more made more than 80 metres.
· Unsurprisingly, Robbie Farah led all Wests Tigers players with 44 tackles, followed by Woods (33), Sauaso Sue (29), Martin Taupau, Dene Halatau and Galloway (all 25).
· Despite missing 11 more tackles than their opponents, Wests Tigers finished the night with 57 percent possession and seven more completed sets than the Dragons.
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