Trindall puts Sharks' season on track in crucial win
Off the back of two straight losses and after trailing at halftime, Cronulla went from 18-6 down to 22-18 up between the 47th and 57th minutes on Thursday night.
The hosts then did enough to hold on for victory at Shark Park, making it 10 in a row against their arch-rivals and keeping the Sharks fifth on the ladder.
Trindall's kicking was at the centre of it all, while the Cronulla five-eighth also scored a double in the victory.
Blayke Brailey was among the Sharks' best with his running out of dummy-half, while Sione Katoa bagged a double in the win.
The winger's last try to seal the match will also go down as one of the best of the year.
With the Dragons down 24-18 with five minutes to play, five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia chipped ahead and went to toe the ball on again.
But Katoa slid along the ground to catch the ball goalkeeper-style, before gathering his feet and sprinting 60 metres to score.
The result makes it two losses in a row for the Dragons, with Shane Flanagan's men now 12th and at risk of sliding further south this weekend.
For the Sharks, this was a desperately needed win.
Beaten by an undermanned Sydney Roosters in Gosford and travelling Warriors in their past two matches, Cronulla travel to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next fortnight.
"It's too big of a picture to look at it like that," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
"We're where we're at, we haven't performed for a couple of weeks. Even the result today was irrelevant.
"It was the performance that was needed.
"We needed to see what we want to be and do. We just needed to play like the Sharks, that was the most important thing out of tonight."
Cronulla looked at their best with Brailey running out of dummy-half, and the hooker laid on the Sharks' first when he sent Trindall over early.
But after that, the Sharks defence began to break.
Dragons veteran Damien Cook turned back the clock for one try and King-Togia beat four defenders for another.
And when Jack de Belin went over with Sharks centre Jesse Ramien in the sin-bin for a professional foul it was 18-6.
Then after the break Cronulla's forwards started to get a roll on, the wind picked up and Trindall chose his moments to terrorise the Dragons.
The five-eighth first put Briton Nikora over with a short ball, before staying alive to score from one of his own bombs after Clint Gutherson and Tyrell Sloan failed to defuse it.
The go-ahead try then came when Nathan Lawson dropped Trindall's next bomb, and Katoa skipped to the outside of Dragons centre Moses Suli from the scrum to score.
"They ran a little harder in the second half, got good field position and all their kicks were contestable," Flanagan said.
"You have to make them kick long, and they were all contestable kicks. And we didn't handle the kicks.
"There's 12 points, there's the game off two kicks."
The only concern for Cronulla came in the form of a calf injury for Mawene Hiroti, just a week after fellow centre KL Iro was ruled out for two months with a pectoral tear.
Braydon Trindall has helped put Cronulla's NRL season back on track, unleashing 10 minutes of torment on St George Illawarra to inspire a 30-18 come-from-behind win.
Off the back of two straight losses and after trailing at halftime, Cronulla went from 18-6 down to 22-18 up between the 47th and 57th minutes on Thursday night.
The hosts then did enough to hold on for victory at Shark Park, making it 10 in a row against their arch-rivals and keeping the Sharks fifth on the ladder.
Trindall's kicking was at the centre of it all, while the Cronulla five-eighth also scored a double in the victory.
Blayke Brailey was among the Sharks' best with his running out of dummy-half, while Sione Katoa bagged a double in the win.
The winger's last try to seal the match will also go down as one of the best of the year.
With the Dragons down 24-18 with five minutes to play, five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia chipped ahead and went to toe the ball on again.
But Katoa slid along the ground to catch the ball goalkeeper-style, before gathering his feet and sprinting 60 metres to score.
The result makes it two losses in a row for the Dragons, with Shane Flanagan's men now 12th and at risk of sliding further south this weekend.
For the Sharks, this was a desperately needed win.
Beaten by an undermanned Sydney Roosters in Gosford and travelling Warriors in their past two matches, Cronulla travel to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next fortnight.
"It's too big of a picture to look at it like that," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
"We're where we're at, we haven't performed for a couple of weeks. Even the result today was irrelevant.
"It was the performance that was needed.
"We needed to see what we want to be and do. We just needed to play like the Sharks, that was the most important thing out of tonight."
Cronulla looked at their best with Brailey running out of dummy-half, and the hooker laid on the Sharks' first when he sent Trindall over early.
But after that, the Sharks defence began to break.
Dragons veteran Damien Cook turned back the clock for one try and King-Togia beat four defenders for another.
And when Jack de Belin went over with Sharks centre Jesse Ramien in the sin-bin for a professional foul it was 18-6.
Then after the break Cronulla's forwards started to get a roll on, the wind picked up and Trindall chose his moments to terrorise the Dragons.
The five-eighth first put Briton Nikora over with a short ball, before staying alive to score from one of his own bombs after Clint Gutherson and Tyrell Sloan failed to defuse it.
The go-ahead try then came when Nathan Lawson dropped Trindall's next bomb, and Katoa skipped to the outside of Dragons centre Moses Suli from the scrum to score.
"They ran a little harder in the second half, got good field position and all their kicks were contestable," Flanagan said.
"You have to make them kick long, and they were all contestable kicks. And we didn't handle the kicks.
"There's 12 points, there's the game off two kicks."
The only concern for Cronulla came in the form of a calf injury for Mawene Hiroti, just a week after fellow centre KL Iro was ruled out for two months with a pectoral tear.
Braydon Trindall has helped put Cronulla's NRL season back on track, unleashing 10 minutes of torment on St George Illawarra to inspire a 30-18 come-from-behind win.
Off the back of two straight losses and after trailing at halftime, Cronulla went from 18-6 down to 22-18 up between the 47th and 57th minutes on Thursday night.
The hosts then did enough to hold on for victory at Shark Park, making it 10 in a row against their arch-rivals and keeping the Sharks fifth on the ladder.
Trindall's kicking was at the centre of it all, while the Cronulla five-eighth also scored a double in the victory.
Blayke Brailey was among the Sharks' best with his running out of dummy-half, while Sione Katoa bagged a double in the win.
The winger's last try to seal the match will also go down as one of the best of the year.
With the Dragons down 24-18 with five minutes to play, five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia chipped ahead and went to toe the ball on again.
But Katoa slid along the ground to catch the ball goalkeeper-style, before gathering his feet and sprinting 60 metres to score.
The result makes it two losses in a row for the Dragons, with Shane Flanagan's men now 12th and at risk of sliding further south this weekend.
For the Sharks, this was a desperately needed win.
Beaten by an undermanned Sydney Roosters in Gosford and travelling Warriors in their past two matches, Cronulla travel to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next fortnight.
"It's too big of a picture to look at it like that," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
"We're where we're at, we haven't performed for a couple of weeks. Even the result today was irrelevant.
"It was the performance that was needed.
"We needed to see what we want to be and do. We just needed to play like the Sharks, that was the most important thing out of tonight."
Cronulla looked at their best with Brailey running out of dummy-half, and the hooker laid on the Sharks' first when he sent Trindall over early.
But after that, the Sharks defence began to break.
Dragons veteran Damien Cook turned back the clock for one try and King-Togia beat four defenders for another.
And when Jack de Belin went over with Sharks centre Jesse Ramien in the sin-bin for a professional foul it was 18-6.
Then after the break Cronulla's forwards started to get a roll on, the wind picked up and Trindall chose his moments to terrorise the Dragons.
The five-eighth first put Briton Nikora over with a short ball, before staying alive to score from one of his own bombs after Clint Gutherson and Tyrell Sloan failed to defuse it.
The go-ahead try then came when Nathan Lawson dropped Trindall's next bomb, and Katoa skipped to the outside of Dragons centre Moses Suli from the scrum to score.
"They ran a little harder in the second half, got good field position and all their kicks were contestable," Flanagan said.
"You have to make them kick long, and they were all contestable kicks. And we didn't handle the kicks.
"There's 12 points, there's the game off two kicks."
The only concern for Cronulla came in the form of a calf injury for Mawene Hiroti, just a week after fellow centre KL Iro was ruled out for two months with a pectoral tear.
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Crestfallen Alexei Popyrin has crashed out to a Briton ranked No.461 in the world while only a wonderful trademark comeback from Jordan Thompson could rescue Australia's depressingly icy start to Wimbledon's hottest opening day ever. Big-serving Popyrin, the 20th seed and the biggest Australian men's hope apart from Alex de Minaur, was left "numb" after tumbling out to French-born English wildcard Arthur Fery 6-4 6-1 4-6 6-4 in one of the biggest upsets of a record-breaking first Monday. And even never-say-die Thompson cut a forlorn figure after his latest comeback win from two sets down against Czech Vit Kopriva, admitting his back injury made the victory no fun and that he might still have to pull out of his second-round match. As the temperature hit 32.9C, the rest of the first wave of Australia's 17-strong battalion - their biggest for 30 years - were all put in the shade with seven tumbling out in conditions which one victim, Olivia Gadecki, admitted had been perfect conditions for them. Of those, none was more deflating than Popyrin's capitulation to wildcard Fery, a 22-year-old local Wimbledon lad who took full advantage of his 'home' advantage at the All England Club where his father, who owns French soccer club Lorient, is a member. Fery was not even originally in the initial batch of wildcards named by the All England Club because his ranking had dropped so low, until he turned heads with a fine performance at Nottingham. But Popyrin felt he'd played so poorly against a man ranked 439 places below him that, afterwards, he sounded almost as dejected, demotivated and burned out as de Minaur had done following his early exit from the French Open. "I just felt numb, I didn't feel sad, I didn't feel happy, I just felt numb," he sighed. "And that's not a feeling I've ever had before. "I think it just shows that I understand why this result happened. It was because I was under-prepared going into Wimbledon, demotivated going into Wimbledon." The Sydneysider has been bemoaning his lack of consistency and after being Australia's last man standing at Roland Garros, reaching the fourth round, he was quickly dumped down to earth again in front of a roaring crowd on cramped court 15. Thompson started stiffly, a back brace protecting his latest in a long line of injuries this year but also limiting his movement, yet somehow clawed his way back to prevail 3-6 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 against Kopriva for his third comeback from two sets down in three successive Wimbledons. In all, it was Thompson's fourth five-set win at the grass-court slam -- but at what cost? 'Tommo', who'd feared he might not even get to the start line, still wasn't sure if he'd now be fit to play his next match against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, shock conqueror of Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. "I'm just praying I can get back on the court," said the 31-year-old, sounding very gloomy. The rest was a long, burning tale of woe, from the moment Kim Birrell became the first player knocked out in a completed match at this year's championships - 6-0 6-4 to last year's semi-finalist and 22nd seed Donna Vekic - to Ajla Tomljanovic's late-evening loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6 6-3 6-2. Tomljanovic was adamant the Aussie collapse was just an unfortunate collective "bad day at the office ... but you have to forget about it." Nine more, headed by de Minaur, will hope for better on what promises to be another roasting Tuesday. There were a couple of gallant cracks at causing an upset, with Sydneysider James Duckworth taking Canadian 25th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime to five sets before losing 6-2 3-6 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-4. Then 21-year-old Perth qualifier Talia Gibson made it tough for four-time grand slam champ Naomi Osaka in the biggest match of her career, twice missing out when serving to take the contest into a third set, before the Japanese superstar made her pay with a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) triumph. "I was a little bit disappointed I wasn't able to quite take it to a third set but I will take a huge amount of confidence from that match, being able to show myself that I'm able to fully compete with a champion like her," said Gibson. Chris O'Connell found the ever tricky French veteran Adrian Mannarino too much to handle, going down 6-2 6-4 6-3 in two-and-a-quarter one-sided hours, while Gadecki battled gallantly, saving five match points only to succumb 6-2 7-6 (10-8) to Argentine lucky loser Solana Sierra. Crestfallen Alexei Popyrin has crashed out to a Briton ranked No.461 in the world while only a wonderful trademark comeback from Jordan Thompson could rescue Australia's depressingly icy start to Wimbledon's hottest opening day ever. Big-serving Popyrin, the 20th seed and the biggest Australian men's hope apart from Alex de Minaur, was left "numb" after tumbling out to French-born English wildcard Arthur Fery 6-4 6-1 4-6 6-4 in one of the biggest upsets of a record-breaking first Monday. And even never-say-die Thompson cut a forlorn figure after his latest comeback win from two sets down against Czech Vit Kopriva, admitting his back injury made the victory no fun and that he might still have to pull out of his second-round match. As the temperature hit 32.9C, the rest of the first wave of Australia's 17-strong battalion - their biggest for 30 years - were all put in the shade with seven tumbling out in conditions which one victim, Olivia Gadecki, admitted had been perfect conditions for them. Of those, none was more deflating than Popyrin's capitulation to wildcard Fery, a 22-year-old local Wimbledon lad who took full advantage of his 'home' advantage at the All England Club where his father, who owns French soccer club Lorient, is a member. Fery was not even originally in the initial batch of wildcards named by the All England Club because his ranking had dropped so low, until he turned heads with a fine performance at Nottingham. But Popyrin felt he'd played so poorly against a man ranked 439 places below him that, afterwards, he sounded almost as dejected, demotivated and burned out as de Minaur had done following his early exit from the French Open. "I just felt numb, I didn't feel sad, I didn't feel happy, I just felt numb," he sighed. "And that's not a feeling I've ever had before. "I think it just shows that I understand why this result happened. It was because I was under-prepared going into Wimbledon, demotivated going into Wimbledon." The Sydneysider has been bemoaning his lack of consistency and after being Australia's last man standing at Roland Garros, reaching the fourth round, he was quickly dumped down to earth again in front of a roaring crowd on cramped court 15. Thompson started stiffly, a back brace protecting his latest in a long line of injuries this year but also limiting his movement, yet somehow clawed his way back to prevail 3-6 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 against Kopriva for his third comeback from two sets down in three successive Wimbledons. In all, it was Thompson's fourth five-set win at the grass-court slam -- but at what cost? 'Tommo', who'd feared he might not even get to the start line, still wasn't sure if he'd now be fit to play his next match against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, shock conqueror of Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. "I'm just praying I can get back on the court," said the 31-year-old, sounding very gloomy. The rest was a long, burning tale of woe, from the moment Kim Birrell became the first player knocked out in a completed match at this year's championships - 6-0 6-4 to last year's semi-finalist and 22nd seed Donna Vekic - to Ajla Tomljanovic's late-evening loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6 6-3 6-2. Tomljanovic was adamant the Aussie collapse was just an unfortunate collective "bad day at the office ... but you have to forget about it." Nine more, headed by de Minaur, will hope for better on what promises to be another roasting Tuesday. There were a couple of gallant cracks at causing an upset, with Sydneysider James Duckworth taking Canadian 25th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime to five sets before losing 6-2 3-6 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-4. Then 21-year-old Perth qualifier Talia Gibson made it tough for four-time grand slam champ Naomi Osaka in the biggest match of her career, twice missing out when serving to take the contest into a third set, before the Japanese superstar made her pay with a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) triumph. "I was a little bit disappointed I wasn't able to quite take it to a third set but I will take a huge amount of confidence from that match, being able to show myself that I'm able to fully compete with a champion like her," said Gibson. Chris O'Connell found the ever tricky French veteran Adrian Mannarino too much to handle, going down 6-2 6-4 6-3 in two-and-a-quarter one-sided hours, while Gadecki battled gallantly, saving five match points only to succumb 6-2 7-6 (10-8) to Argentine lucky loser Solana Sierra.
