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Norman helps Dragons end losing run

3 minute read

In his first game back from a cheekbone injury, Corey Norman scored a try and set up another in St George Illawarra's 36-12 rout of Canterbury.

COREY NORMAN of the Eels in action during the NRL match between the Wests Tigers and the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
COREY NORMAN of the Eels in action during the NRL match between the Wests Tigers and the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia. Picture: hoto by Mark Nolan/Getty Images

Corey Norman has made an instant impact on return from injury by helping St George Illawarra end their five-game slide with a 36-12 demolition of Canterbury.

Norman and halves partner Ben Hunt were involved in all six of the Dragons' tries on Monday, breathing life into a spiralling NRL campaign.

Making his first appearance since fracturing his cheekbone in round eight, Norman scored one and set up another at ANZ Stadium.

"With the return of Corey, Ben played a nice, solid role," coach Paul McGregor said.

"Corey's been doing a lot of repetitions on the park due to the fact that it was a facial injury. It wasn't a muscle injury or knee injury or ankle.

"And he just went out and played how he trained."

Winger Mikaele Ravalawa netted a brace, while centre Zac Lomax kicked a perfect six goals from as many attempts for a 16-point personal haul.

The dominant win means McGregor's side join four other teams on 12 points, but climb to 10th spot on percentages.

For the last-placed Bulldogs, it was another lacklustre display in a sorry season.

Their afternoon started brightly when Tariq Sims lost the ball in the opening set and Raymond Faitala-Mariner crossed not long after.

But from there it was all the Red V for the 16,003-strong crowd.

In the space of four minutes, a Ben Hunt cutout put Ravalawa over, and then Ravalawa turned assist-man for Norman.

In between, Bulldogs halfback Jack Cogger was knocked out for the game.

A third try to Jonus Pearson would've been hard for coach Dean Pay to stomach, and he definitely would've been sick when Nick Meaney was denied in the 35th.

Will Hopoate was ruled to have caught an out-ball inside of a decoy, leaving the Bulldogs with a 12-point deficit at halftime.

Things went from bad to worse for the hosts when consecutive Jeremy Marshall-King errors in a minute resulted in Norman putting Hunt over untouched.

The halves pairing then combined to send Jacob Host into the backfield, and the second-rower grubbered ahead for Lomax to sink the boot in further.

Foran, who was arguably the Bulldogs' best with two line break assists and a try assist, grabbed a consolation four-pointer late, before Ravalawa got another.

Pay said his team needed to show more resilience after losing their halfback.

"Jack's obviously does a lot of our kicking and organising but we've got to be better than that," Pay said.

"We started the game pretty well, but we finished with some back-to-back errors and penalties and that's where they put their points on us."

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