For 77 minutes Jamie Soward couldn’t land a kick, but when it came to the clutch the St George Illawarra five-eighth overcame his issue with the balls to land the only one that counted in the Dragons’ 13-12 win over Wests Tigers.
Soward took aim at the NRL’s decision to go with special ‘heritage round’ balls for the clash at the SCG, balls the normally sharp-shooting kicker claimed behaved totally different to the stock-standard variety used every other week.
Lighter, rounder, bouncier – Soward was left stunned by the league’s decision to go with the balls – but glad they didn’t cost his side two competition points following his late strike after missing with all three of his conversion attempts.
“It’s tough to get your head around using different balls for one week, especially when we’re the only game using it,” Soward said.
“We understand how important the round is for rugby league, I think we could go a better way around it.
“It goes a little bit rounder and the printing’s different, it’s a different weight to what the normal balls are – for me it’s frustrating as a kicker to have to use different balls.
“I think you saw today that they bounce differently.
“If you ask the manufacturers the balls are definitely different – you only have to look at them side by side. Maybe next year we don’t draw that ball.”
Soward’s lack of accuracy looked like it was going to cost his side as the Tigers – down 12-0 with 15 minutes to go – raced in two tries in as many minutes via Ben Murdoch-Masila and Tim Moltzen to lock it up.
Truth be told they should have had three tries in five minutes, only for a lingering Daniel Vidot arm to do just enough to dislodge the ball from Blake Ayshford’s grasp as he careered towards the tryline.
They appeared to be playing for a field goal when Moltzen lost the ball at dummy-half, that respite all the Dragons needed as they marched downfield for Soward to nail the match-winner at his second attempt.
“It’s disappointing that the result was what it was but when you make so many errors you don’t deserve to win so it’s justified that they got two points,” Tigers coach Michael Potter said.
“We just weren’t at the races so to speak in our execution and our skill, we were down in all categories.
“I thought we were moving forward.”
The Tigers have now lost three in a row while the Dragons have turned it around to win three on the trot after losing as many to open the season.
It’s the first time the Dragons have won three consecutive games under the coaching of Steve Price, the under-siege mentor moving closer each week to securing a new deal at the club.