Dragons on top of the world

St George Illawarra claimed the PROBIZ World Club Challenge for the first time in their illustrious history with a 21-15 win over Wigan at the DW Stadium.

The Dragons gave absent coach Wayne Bennett, who had returned home during the week for family reasons, a much-needed boost as they made sure the NRL took home the spoils for a third straight year.

Winger Brett Morris bagged a brace of tries but it was teenage replacement Cameron King's second-half score that proved to be the game-winner.

The Warriors, bidding to lift the trophy for a fourth time, had led 15-14 at the break but failed to muster a single point in the second half, despite piling on the pressure in the closing stages in front of a crowd of 24.268.

Perfect start

All this came after the Super League champions had made a perfect start to proceedings with eight points inside the opening four minutes.

It was George Carmont's shuddering tackle on Beau Scott that gifted Wigan possession and the centre was the man to benefit the most, rising high on the left to claim Paul Deacon's kick from across the other side of the field.

Deacon added the extras to make it 6-0 and was soon on target again with a penalty after Nathan Fein's high tackle on Sean O'Loughlin.

At that stage the Dragons looked shell-shocked, but they quickly recovered and hit back with two tries in the space of six minutes.

Morris' first of the night came courtesy of a pass from Matt Cooper who scored the second himself, accepting Ben Hornby's offload back on the angle and then ploughing his way through several tacklers to touch down.

Deacon missed a penalty to level the scores at 10 apiece but the resulting drop-out led to Wigan going ahead again, albeit thanks to a lucky break.

Harrison Hansen's brave pass out wide - one that looked a little forward to the naked eye - went to ground but Carmont scooped it up and then galloped away, cutting back inside the last man to score next to the uprights.

St George's response was to again attack down their left; Morris was given too much room by Darrell Goulding and made his fellow winger pay.

Jamie Soward's second conversion made it 14-14 and it looked like that would be the half-time score until Sam Tomkins popped up with a drop goal with the final play before the hooter sounded. The full-back's kick, though, would be the last time the Cherry and Whites mustered a point.

Tough defence

Known for their tough defence, the Dragons belied the long trip over and their lack of competitive matches to stand firm with whatever was thrown at them.

The game tilted firmly in their favour in a crucial couple of minutes. King powered his way over from dummy half after Goulding had missed a glorious chance to intercept a pass and go the length of the field to the try-line.

Soward added the extras to make it 20-15 before slotting over a drop goal with 10 minutes to play to give the Dragons a little more breathing space.

Needing a try to force golden-point extra time, Wigan - who were without the injured Stuart Fielden and saw centre Martin Gleeson forced out of the action before half time - did all they could to get over the whitewash again.

A succession of penalties raised hope amongst the home faithful but the Dragons would not be breached, as they followed in the recent footsteps of Manly Sea Eagles and Melbourne Storm in winning on English soil.