Take it as fact. The Tigers\u2019 finals hopes are over.<\/p>\n
Well, not mathematically, but after falling to the Dragons 24-10 on Saturday night, they\u2019d better start planning for the off-season. <\/p>\n
To make matters worse, they\u2019re likely to lose skipper Api Koroisau for the rest of the season after he injured his pectoral late in the second half. <\/p>\n
Yes, they still only sit four points out of the eight, but after this performance they don\u2019t deserve to end their 15-year finals drought.<\/p>\n
Scroll down for all the latest NRL and team news<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got exactly what we deserved today,\u201d Tigers coach Benji Marshall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur discipline, attention to detail and care wasn\u2019t good enough\u2026 we were poor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe let them out of yardage with penalty after penalty, and they capitalised.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to look at the preparation we had\u2026 that starts and stops with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gone backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
With their season on the line, Marshall\u2019s men were simply out enthused by a St George Illawarra who battled hard to earn their second win of 2026. The Dragons deservedly led 6-4 at half-time, and while Adam Doueihi\u2019s second try put the Tigers ahead 10-6 early in the second half, two quick-fire tries to maligned centre Valentine Holmes sealed the deal for the Dragons.<\/p>\n
Enthusiastic young forwards Loko Pasifi Tonga and Toby and Ryan Couchman were immense. <\/p>\n
Their bullocking charges up the centre kept the Tigers on the back foot all evening, and they finished the game with 327 metres between them. <\/p>\n
Holmes likewise had a night to remember. <\/p>\n
Aside from scoring twice in three minutes to give his side an unassailable lead late in the piece, he kicked four vital goals and made three line breaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (the win) feels pretty good,\u201d interim Dragons coach Dean Young said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation at the club isn\u2019t easy, but the players walk in every day and buy into what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cVal was back to being Val, which everyone loves to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Loko was special tonight, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holmes\u2019 40th-minute penalty goal gave the Dragons their two-point advantage at half-time, but they probably should have led by more. The former centre was denied a try in the 26th minute after the bunker ruled Hamish Stewart had obstructed Adam Doueihi in the build-up, and while the Tigers had more ball in the Dragons\u2019 red zone, their lone first-half try came while Clint Gutherson was in the sin bin.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, it was Doueihi who attempted to lift the Tigers during the second stanza. He put the Tigers back in front when he caught the Dragons unawares by grounding his own grubber just short of the dead ball line. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, this would prove to be a temporary reprieve. <\/p>\n
A dropped ball from Tigers five-eighth Jock Madden gave the Dragons valuable field position, and from the ensuing set the ball was shifted to the left for Holmes to score his first.<\/p>\n
By the 74th minute, he\u2019d completed his double, while Mathew Feagai sent the partisan crowd into raptures when he crossed in the 76th.<\/p>\n
TIGERS LACK CREATIVITY<\/p>\n
It seems strange saying this about a team that has historically been quite flamboyant, but the Tigers\u2019 attack needs serious work. <\/p>\n
Granted, they were missing star half Jarome Luai against the Dragons, but this was the second week in a row where their attack looked flatter than three-day-old lemonade. <\/p>\n
They ran sideways way too often and, aside from Doueihi, none of their players offered anything with the ball in hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two weeks we\u2019ve been poor attack-wise,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we were so lateral and made no in-roads down their end. We were lucky to score our second try.\u201d<\/p>\n
TACKLE SHY TURVUA<\/p>\n
Sunia Turuva had an absolute nightmare in defence against the Dragons. The winger-come-centre was clearly targeted on Saturday night and was found wanting on multiple occasions. His tendency to prematurely rush up in defence continually allowed the Dragons backs to easily create overlaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Take it as fact. The Tigers\u2019 finals hopes are over. Well, not mathematically, but after falling to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-778655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778655","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=778655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}