St George Illawarra were unlucky not to return home from Las Vegas with one competition point.
They led Melbourne with 20 minutes remaining in round two, only for the visitors to click into gear and score five tries.
But the toughest loss yet was the 30-20 result against Parramatta on Sunday.
What you would have given to be a fly on the wall in the Dragons’ coaches box in the second half at CommBank Stadium.
The 25,573 fans sensed it was only a matter of time before the Dragons ran over the top of the Eels, especially late in the game.
They had all the running courtesy of a 6-1 penalty count. Parramatta forward Charlie Guymer was sin-binned for tackling Jacob Liddle in an offside position after he took a quick tap, which made the Dragons’ job even easier.
But the Dragons simply lacked the polish and patience to seal the win.
“We beat ourselves – we fought hard, the effort is there, we created enough opportunities, but we beat ourselves with errors,” coach Shane Flanagan said.
“We stripped them for numbers a couple of times, but we couldn’t get it done. We made more linebreaks, every stat we were in front, but we didn’t win on the scoreboard, and that’s all that matters.“
They were clunky in attack, and kept going left to Moses Suli, who appeared troubled by an ankle injury. The attack became so predictable at one stage, Phil Gould asked on the Nine commentary why Valentine Holmes did not bother to swing around from the right side of the field to get involved.
The last time the Dragons started 0-3 was 2020, when they lost six of their opening eight games and coach Paul McGregor was sacked later in the year.
The last thing Flanagan can afford is for losing to become a habit. The next three weeks – the Titans (away), North Queensland (home) and Manly (home) – are so vital for the Red V. No game in the NRL is easy, but on paper right now, they are three games the Dragons can win.
Flanagan lost the opening four games with Cronulla in 2015, only for the Sharks to reach the finals that year.
“Sides will lose three in a row during the year, unfortunately we’ve lost three at the start, and maybe it’s a really good kickstart for us – that’s the way I’ll be using it,” he said.
“It’s not what we wanted, but we’ve got nobody else to blame bar ourselves.“
The Dragons looked good early when they raced to a 14-6 lead when Luciano Leilua and Jaydn Su’A stormed through some soft defence to score.
But two minutes after Su’A got across the line, the Dragons had Ryan Couchman sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle on J’maine Hopgood. Hopgood did not return and it was later revealed he had suffered a torn ACL, which will be taken into consideration when the match review committee hands down its charges on Monday morning.
Holmes was also placed on report for a shoulder charge in the second half.
The Eels now have two wins in the bank, but a similar effort against Penrith next weekend could result in poor outcome.
Their first four-pointer was ruled a penalty try after Su’A grabbed at an unmarked Jonah Pezet when he loomed in support to catch a pass from Kitione Kautoga.
They did lose Hopgood, while Jordan Samrami did not return in the second half after he suffered a knee injury.
Had the Eels lost, there would have been a big focus on the decision to bin Guymer for tackling Liddle. Captain Mitchell Moses argued he wanted to challenge a stripping penalty, only for Liddle to restart play before he could plead his case.
A standout in the blue and gold again was Isaiah Iongi, who always looked safe under the high ball, especially when the pressure mounted the longer the game went. The only one he spilled should have resulted in a Kyle Flanagan try, only for Flanagan to be pinged for a knock-on.
