Dragons march on

The St George Illawarra Dragons have continued their march towards the minor premiership with another workmanlike performance to knock off the Panthers 25-6 at a packed CUA Stadium on Saturday night.

The match marked the Penrith club's 1000th premiership outing, but the celebrations at the foot of mountains failed to include the main fare as the ladder leaders clinically outclassed their opponents in front of the biggest CUA Stadium crowd of the year (19,987).

St George Illawarra enjoyed a 61 percent possession share in the first-half to claim a handy 12-0 lead before seeing off a strong Panthers' charge early in the second stanza to cruise home to their seventh straight victory.

In-form five-eighth Jamie Soward was again the star for the Dragons, landing four goals, a field goal and racing over for scintillating 75m solo try in the second-half.

The loss virtually ends the fifth-placed Panthers' chances of a top-four finish and they could slip a further two positions down the ladder if other results fail to go their way this weekend.

A handling error by Panthers winger Shane Elford handed the Dragons possession for the opening try in just the fifth minute when a deft Ben Hornby pass sent second-rower Ben Creagh crashing over the top of Penrith half-back Luke Walsh.

Soward landed the mid-range conversion to give the Dragons a 6-0 lead.

Elford remained the villain for the Panthers just after the re-start when he was placed on report for a high shot on Dragons centre Matt Cooper, but the locals were given some respite when Soward missed the resulting 30m penalty goal from in front.

There was more drama for Elford in the 13th minute, but this time he was on the receiving end of a Justin Poore lifting tackle, resulting in the big Dragons prop being placed on report and Elford leaving the field in a sick and sorry state.

The game settled into an arm-wrestle for much of the first half until Dragons interchange forward Jeremy Smith celebrated his return from injury with the softest of dummy-half tries just four minutes before the break to the give the visitors their 12-0 half-time advantage.

Before this game the Dragons had only conceded two tries in their past five second halves, but the Panthers weren't perturbed by statistics, crossing for their first try of the match just five minutes after the resumption and going painfully close to another one a couple of minutes later.

Panthers utility Luke Lewis celebrated his return from a broken toe with a 45th minute try on the final tackle to close the gap to six points for his side.

The NSW Origin star was in line for back-to-back tries moments later when he dived on the scraps of a towering Wade Graham bomb only to have his claim for a four-pointer denied by video referee Steve Clark who ruled Panthers interchange back Maurice Blair had knocked the ball forward in a challenge with Dragons winger Brett Morris prior to it falling on the ground.

The Dragons took full advantage of their good fortune courtesy of a Soward long-range special in the 50th minute to once again bump the lead out to 12 points.

Soward sealed the game with a 74th minute field-goal before Smith made up for lost time with his second try of the night on full-time.

Penrith Panthers 6
Tries: Lewis
Conversions: Gordon

St George Illawarra Dragons 25
Tries: Smith 2, Creagh, Soward
Conversions: Soward 4
Field goals: Soward