Error-prone Dragons fall to 11th straight defeat against Warriors

Towards the end of the first half at Kogarah on Saturday night, a lone voice in the main grandstand attempted to fire up the Dragons chant.

He persisted for about 10 seconds before giving up.

St George Illawarra supporters haven’t had much to shout about this season and they were given few reasons to do so in a 30-12 loss to an under-strength New Zealand Warriors in wet weather in Sydney’s south.

Undone by errors, it was the Dragons’ 11th successive defeat this season.

They are now only two more away from sharing the unwanted title of the longest winless start to a campaign in NRL history.

That belongs to Newcastle, who lost 13 in a row at the beginning of 2005. The Knights came back to win eight of their final 11 matches, but they had Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus. The Dragons – who play the Broncos and Sharks in the next fortnight – do not.

Dean Young’s team fought hard even as doubles to third-choice Warriors halfback Te Maire Martin and winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira threatened to make the scoreline really untidy.

None gave more than the emerging Couchman twins, Ryan and Toby, regarded as key members of the club’s future.

But after the prolific Dallin Watene-Zelezniak took an intercept to complete his own pair of tries in the closing stages, there were boos as the final siren sounded.

The result was further soured by a dislocated shoulder suffered by Hayden Buchanan which forced Clint Gutherson to spend much of the evening at centre and Tyrell Sloan to deputise at fullback.

On a rainy night and with the Dragons in the midst of such a torrid season, only the most rusted-on club faithful braved the uncovered terraces and hill at St George Venues Jubilee Stadium.

The raincoats and umbrellas could not shield them from more disappointment.

The Dragons hit the lead early when Hamish Stewart sent Setu Tu over in the corner with an overhead pass and they spent sufficient time deep in the Warriors’ territory.

However, a recurring stream of handling mistakes, poor decisions, on top of a lack of class, thwarted their efforts to capitalise on their chances.

Veteran centre Valentine Holmes was the guilty party on three occasions in the first half alone, continuing his slide in form this season, while an ambitious cut-out pass from Sloan sailed over the sideline to torch another opportunity.

Young had singled out the Dragons’ ball control as an area he wanted improvement in following a spirited performance against competition leaders Penrith.

While the conditions were always going to be challenging, there was far too much dropped ball to beat most sides, let alone the high-flyers they were up against.

The Warriors were certainly not perfect themselves but were clinical enough when it mattered.

They were too strong despite being without State of Origin representatives Mitch Barnett and Kurt Capewell and losing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to a knee injury after only 11 minutes. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava also failed to return following a head knock later in the first half.

In what was the Warriors’ sixth win in succession, Martin again proved a more than capable replacement for the injured Tanah Boyd and Luke Metcalf.