Dragons run down rueful Raiders

St George Illawarra have broken their duck egg for 2015, completing a remarkable comeback in winning 22-20 in front of 11,774 fans at Canberra Stadium tonight.

It wasn't the start the Dragons were looking for, after their disappointing display on Monday night. They sleepwalked through the opening thirty minutes of the contest. English rake Josh Hodgson opened the scoring and his National Rugby League account when he took on some feeble Dragons defense.

Ill-discipline and just lethergy cost the Dragons again in the 16th minute. Super League recruit, Iosia Soliola ran hard onto a short pass and that movement was enough to catch the Dragons out doubling the Raiders lead to twelve.

The viewing during the week in the film room won't be pleasant for the Dragons after Blake Austin completed the three-card magic trick, fooling the whole line to just stroll through and heap more pressure and doubt onto the embattled Saints.

There was some signs of life late in the half, Penrith bound lock Trent Merrin showed why he was recruited so heavily, as he crashed through the Raiders' defence to dive over for, at the time, the most points the Dragons had scored in 2015.

Second halves haven't been kind to the Raiders early in the season, and it wasn't looking grand after 45 minutes when Jason Nightingale dived over to reduce the deficit once again.

Canberra added a penalty goal as their sole scoring play in the second stanza, and with Josh Dugan sin-binned halfway through for a professional foul, had several more opportunities to heap misery on the Dragons.

The Dragons who endured a tough week, with the swelling of the Save Our Saints movement but held tough to stay in the game. Mitch Rein, who was energetic all night, burst through some flimsy defense to run 40 metres and keep the Dragons within four after Widdop's missed conversion.

Fated it was maybe, that a former Raider, of which there was several in the Dragons line-up was the match-winner. Eto Nabuli went close with his magicial effort that was dropped but Thompson wasn't to be denied after swatting away defenders like flies.

His try gave the Dragons their second straight victory in the nation's capital and officially end the hoodoo once and for all.

Next week, St. George Illawarra host their first Wollongong home game of the season against the Sea Eagles, while the Raiders are off to Allianz Stadium for a visit to heavyweights the Sydney Roosters.

Venue: GIO Stadium
Crowd: 11774
Halftime Score: Canberra Raiders 20 St. George Illawarra Dragons 8

LeagueUnlimited.com Players of the Match:
3 points - Blake Austin
2 points - Jason Nightingale
1 point - Mike Cooper

CANBERRA RAIDERS (20)
Tries: Josh Hodgson, Iosia Soliola, Blake Austin
Conversions: Jarrod Croker (3/3)
Penalty Goals: Jarrod Croker (1/1)

ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS (22)
Tries: Trent Merrin, Jason Nightingale, Mitch Rein, Joel Thompson
Conversions: Gareth Widdop (2/4)
Penalty Goals: Gareth Widdop (1/1)

TEAM CHANGES:

CAN: More changes than a Liberal policy for the Raiders today. Bill Tupou returns meaning reshuffle in the backline, Edrick Lee to centre and Sisa Waqa goes to the other wing. In the forwards Dane Tilse goes to the bench in his milestone game, with Papalii moving up to prop meaning Jarrad Kennedy goes into the second row while Paul Vaughan comes into lock. Bench reads McCrone, Tilse, Nuuausala and Fensom.

SGI: Josh Dugan returns! He recovered from his ankle injury to take his custodian role back off Mata'utia. There is also a debut for young u20s centre Euan Aitken who takes Dane Nielsen's place. For the forwards, cult hero George Rose is out meaning Mike Cooper will start and Jake Marketo comes onto the bench.

1: And we are underway in Canberra - Jared Maxwell the "dropped referee" is out main ref

3: PENALTY DRAGONS - First penalty to the men in red but the play ulitmately fails

6: Some exciting play on the final tackle for the Raiders doesn't end up in much other than the corner post losing its covering

7: Mitch Cornish puts in a beautiful kick into the ingoal and Eto can't do anything more than take it dead

8: Jason Nightingale not happy at something in the tackle and tells the touch judge but its play on

8: PENALTY RAIDERS: Dragons do all the hard work and defend the set but concede the penalty on the last

9: VIDEO REFEREE: Heading upstairs for a possible Josh Hodgson try, Jared Maxwell gives us the 'T', grounding is the issue

9: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Josh Hodgson. Kick to come.
Its a Hullkering try for the Raiders with the English international opening the scoring

9: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker converts the try from just left to the uprights

12: The Dragons attack dished up some stuff you wouldn't want to ever touch including a pass from Jason Nightingale that was heading to Goulburn

12: PENALTY RAIDERS: Another penalty to the Raiders on the Dragons line

14: Dragons don't make great yards in the set and in two tackles the Raiders are back to where Benji put the kick in

16: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Iosia Soliola. Kick to come.
Iosia Soliola scores his first try back in the NRL after the floodgates just opened for him to go through untouched

17: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker converts from left of the uprights once again to extend the lead

18: UNFORCED ERROR ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Eto Nabuli makes an unforced error.
An easy pass from dummy half to Nabuli who can't take it and loses it

19: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Blake Austin. Kick to come.
Blake Austin takes the ball from the scrum throws a dummy and just bursts through untouched

22: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker converts the try

25: UNFORCED ERROR ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Jason Nightingale makes an unforced error.
Well if we could describe that play using a bodily function we would but can't... you get the idea

26: Benji goes high on the kick and Bill Tupou takes it with absolute ease

28: PENALTY DRAGONS: Some help up the field was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Dragons and they get a penalty

29: VIDEO REFEREE: Blake Austin crosses the line and reaches out but Gavin Morris says NO TRY

29: PENALTY DRAGONS: Video Referees take one replay to confirm the Double movement theory from Gavin Morris

37: Benji goes through then gets cleaned up then loses the ball - some diabolical play

39: TRY ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Scored by Trent Merrin. Kick to come.
Future Panther Trent Merrin scores under the sticks after a bizarre 3 minutes of play

40: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Conversion attempt by Gareth Widdop successful.
Absolutely no issues for Gareth Widdop converting it from close range

40: SUCCESSFUL PENALTY GOAL ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Penalty goal attempt by Gareth Widdop successful.
After the siren Widdop converts the penalty goal and the Dragons have doubled their season points

41: And we are back underway in the Nation's captial - Raiders have the lead and the first use of the ball

41: PENALTY DRAGONS: A leg pull from the Raiders then some backchat costs the Raiders some decent field position

41: Dragons players seem to have this thought pass of throwing to the landmarks

46: VIDEO REFEREE: Jason Nightingale crosses for an easy try and we need to check grounding but looks pretty obvious

47: TRY ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Scored by Jason Nightingale. Kick to come.
The Dragons are having an absolute dream of a game, Nightingale gets their 2nd try of the day

49: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Conversion attempt by Gareth Widdop unsuccessful.
Gareth Widdop from the right sideline hits the upright and it falls away

53: First 20m restart of the night and then its followed by another penalty

54: SIN BIN
Josh Dugan is sent to the sin bin.
Josh Dugan is off for 10 in the bin after he knocked the ball out Croker's hands when he was trying to go for the quick penalty

56: Up to penalty 17 - and for the stats nerds, thats 36 in 2 games where Gavin Morris is refereeing

59: We've got 12 on 12 at the moment with Sisa Waqa down then ultimately off the field due to injury

61: Edrick Lee absolutely steams through but the big fijian Eto Nabuli saves the day

62: SHORT DROPOUT..... AND IT WORKS

64: VIDEO REFEREE: Eto the fijian magician scores in the corner but we need to check the grounding

64: NO TRY - Eto is denied

67: Dragons have to defend on their own line after the Raiders storm around Duges and put him back into his own ingoal

67: Dragons want to run around in circles in the ingoal and the Raiders get another dropout

70: TRY ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Scored by Mitch Rein. Kick to come.
From nowhere Mitch Rein takes off from dummy half and runs 50m with ease and scores

71: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Conversion attempt by Gareth Widdop unsuccessful.
Gareth Widdop from next to the uprights..... misses it

74: Twists and turns don't accurately describe this one... both these teams don't know whether they are Arthur or Martha

75: TRY ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Scored by Joel Thompson. Kick to come.
IT'S EQUAL - Joel Thompson scores on the left and some great strength and flimsy defence helps them through

76: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Conversion attempt by Gareth Widdop successful.
Gareth Widdop converts the try and the Dragons lead

78: Dragons gets some luck right at the back and they are going on the attack just over halfway on tackle 4

SUCCESSFUL PENALTY GOAL CANBERRA RAIDERS
Penalty goal attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
penalty goal

80: DRAGONS WIN!!!!! - They come from 18-0 down to win 22-20