Round 17
St George Illawarra Dragons 34 d. Sydney Roosters 12

2009 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Dragons fight back to down Roosters
Sun July 5, 2009
Source: www.abc.net.au

Jamie Soward has scored two tries in a stunning second-half turnaround to guide St George Illawarra to a 34-12 win over his former club Sydney Roosters in Kogarah.

Craig Fitzgibbon scored all the points for the visitors in the first half with two converted tries to set up a 12-6 lead at the break, but the Roosters were held scoreless in a second-half battering.

The Dragons, led by New South Wales Origin aspirant Soward, came out firing after the restart and piled on 28 unanswered points with Matt Prior also icing a double.

Soward praised the cool-headed tutelage of master coach Wayne Bennett for breathing fresh life into the Dragons at half-time.

"The first half wasn't us. We had to fix that in the second half," he told ABC Grandstand.

"The biggest thing for us was Wayne was calm at half-time, he was obviously filthy but there was no point blowing up and we got the job done."

Soward was happy with his own performance as his name continues to be linked with a representative call-up to the Blues side.

"I was a bit quiet last week against the Tigers. I was looking for a big one tonight and obviously the second half was good for me," he said.

"We've turned a corner this year and it's a good place to be around."

Boom winger Wendell Sailor also put up his hand for an Origin recall for the Maroons with a handy second-half try, while Soward finished with five goals.

Veteran centre Matt Cooper was delighted with the team's performance, singling out in particular the efforts of a number of youngsters filling in for injured stars.

"The boys really dug deep in the second half. We put on some tries there which was a credit to the boys," he said.

"We're winning and that's all that matters. I'm happy with the way things are going and everyone in this team is going well."

Dragons: 34 (J Soward 2, M Prior 2, N Costigan, W Sailor tries; Soward 5/6 conversions)

Roosters: 12 (C Fitzgibbon 2 tries; Fitzgibbon 2/2 conversions)

Source: ABC News

Audio: Jamie Soward ABC Interview
Audio: Wendell Sailor ABC Interview


RleagueBetting Preview: Dragons v Roosters - NRL Round 17
Fri July 3, 2009
Source: RleagueBetting.com

It's hard to see how the Roosters will get within cooee of the Dragons.

The betting odds reflect this with BetCris
top odds of $1.25 for the Dragons, and Sports Alive quoting a massive $4.75 for the Roosters. This equates to a miserable 21% chance of a Roosters victory. Consider giving up 17.5 start and take the $2.48 odds from Centrebet of a victory to the Dragons by 18 or more points.

Take the $1.91 odds from Bet Ezy that 41 or more points will be scored in the game, and a Dragons try as 1st Scoring Play - the top odds being $1.80 from Sportingbet. Also, the $1.58 odds from Centrebet of a Dragons/Dragons Half
Time/Normal Time Double compares extremely favourably with the $1.40 available elsewhere.

In the 1st Try Scorer market, Sportingbet are once again top odds on all the favourites - you can get $9 for Brett Morris, $11 for Wendell Sailor, $12 for Shaun Kenny Dowell, and $13 for Matt Cooper. However, the best value looks to lie with Centrebet's quotes of $26 for Ben Creagh ($17 available elsewhere) or $34 for Neville Costigan ($21 available elsewhere).

Click Here to Compare Odds on Dragons vs Roosters

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