Match Report: Round 10 vs Dragons

Wests Tigers led for a large portion of the match but continued to gift the Dragons chances through ill-timed errors and penalties.

Tim Sheens’ men were faced with an early setback as second-rower John Bateman was ruled out of the contest with a hamstring injury sustained in the warm-up.

Once on the field, Wests Tigers posted the first points through the boot of Brandon Wakeham but quickly conceded the lead after a Junior Tupou error led to a try for Mikaele Ravalawa.

A line-break from David Nofoaluma put his side in strong attacking field position, with a Luke Brooks’ cross-field kick landing in the waiting arms of Starford To’a for the second try of the afternoon.

Nofoaluma then scored a try of his own as he received a tip-on from fullback Jahream Bula and ran over three Dragons defenders.

Brandon Wakeham converted the try from the sideline and placed a pinpoint kick for the first 40/20 of his career in the following set, but Wests Tigers were unable to take full advantage of the play.

When the Dragons found themselves on the attack late in the half, David Nofoaluma and Junior Tupou combined for a pair of try-saving defensive interventions.

However, a failed touch-finder would ultimately prove costly as Jayden Sullivan cut the lead to four.

Skipper Api Koroisau looked to have capitalised on a Tyrell Sloan error on the final play of the half, but was ruled to have knocked on in the act of grounding the ball.

Consequently, scores remained at 14-10 as both teams hit the sheds.

After a tight opening to the second period, Jayden Sullivan took advantage of a late penalty to complete his double.

With the Dragons piling on the pressure, Brandon Wakeham received a fortunate bounce from a dropout to retain possession and send Wests Tigers on the attack.

A David Klemmer offload on the ensuing set sent Jahream Bula through the defensive line, leading to a strong run to the try-line from Junior Tupou to regain the lead.

With time ticking down in the final minutes, Ben Hunt provided a moment of magic by kicking off the ground and regathering as he burst into the backfield.

Hunt passed to the trailing Talatau Amone, before the ball eventually found its way to an unmarked Mikaele Ravalawa in the corner.

Wests Tigers scrambled desperately in numbers and Jahream Bula dislodged the ball from the powerful Fijian, sealing the result for his side with yet another try-saving tackle.

For the second consecutive week, Wests Tigers completed at over 90% with nine players running for over 100 metres.

Alex Twal led the tackle count with 44, while David Nofoaluma and Junior Tupou combined for two tries and fifteen tackle busts.

The joint-venture will now return to Sydney and turn their attention to next Saturday’s match against the Rabbitohs at Accor Stadium.