{"id":746836,"date":"2026-06-19T14:27:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746836\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T14:27:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:27:37","slug":"winning-chance-slips-through-dragons-fingers-as-knights-hold-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746836\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning chance slips through Dragons\u2019 fingers as Knights hold on"},"content":{"rendered":"

A second win of the season has quite literally slipped through St George Illawarra\u2019s fingers in a heartbreaking 22-20 loss to Newcastle at McDonald Jones Stadium.<\/p>\n

The last-placed Dragons scored four tries to the Knights\u2019 three on Friday night, with two Newcastle penalty goals and Valentine Holmes\u2019 wayward boot separating the sides.<\/p>\n

Saints had one last chance to snatch a famous victory when five-eighth Daniel Atkinson lofted a bomb into the red zone in the final minute of play.<\/p>\n

Excellent to that point, halves partner Kyle Flanagan chased through, but the ball slipped from his grasp as he tried to regather it and score the match-winner.<\/p>\n

The Knights held on for the most unconvincing of wins and moved temporarily into the top four.<\/p>\n

Holmes will rue having missed a very straightforward conversion attempt with 20 minutes to play that could have eventually sent the game to extra time.<\/p>\n

The former State of Origin representative grimaced after pushing the regulation attempt just to the left of the woodwork.<\/p>\n

But the result nevertheless reiterates the Dragons\u2019 improvements under interim coach Dean Young.<\/p>\n

Only six weeks ago, Newcastle raced out to a 32-0 half-time lead and inflicted a 44-10 defeat on the Dragons in Young\u2019s second game at the helm.<\/p>\n

Early signs were that history would repeat itself after the Dragons were forced to reshuffle their backline with Moses Suli (back) injured in the warm-up.<\/p>\n

Replacing the rested Kalyn Ponga, fullback Fletcher Sharpe feasted on the makeshift edges, crossing twice in the opening 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

But unlike in the sides\u2019 last meeting, the Dragons would not roll over, and are clearly attacking with far greater confidence than earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

So often criticised for their lack of firepower in the halves, all four of the Dragons\u2019 tries came directly after kicks from either Atkinson or Flanagan.<\/p>\n

The first three of those were from kicks early in the tackle count, with the Dragons also unafraid to throw the ball around in second-phase play.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Manly<\/a><\/p>\n

Second-rower Luciano Leilua gave Saints a lift coming on and helped put Clint Gutherson into a space ahead of Setu Tu\u2019s try.<\/p>\n

The Dragons\u2019 defensive resolve has also found new levels.<\/p>\n

Notably, hooker Damien Cook pulled his opposite man Phoenix Crossland down centimetres short of the tryline in the final minute before half-time.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Knights\u2019 fast start was enough, with Sandon Smith\u2019s 54th-minute try their only four-pointer after the 10-minute mark.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A second win of the season has quite literally slipped through St George Illawarra\u2019s fingers in a heartbreaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-746836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}