Dragons hold on

The Dragons have sealed the minor premiership and ended the Knights season with a thrilling 26-18 win over Newcastle at a packed EnergyAustralia Stadium on Saturday night.

The Dragons looked in control from the opening whistle running in three first-half tries in a near perfect display for a 16-0 lead at half-time.

They looked to go on with it in the second half with a Ben Creagh try in the 44th minute giving them a commanding 22-0 lead.

But the Knights, spurred on by a sold-out crowd of 23,148, mounted a spirited comeback scoring three tries in eight minutes to make it 22-18 midway through the second half.

Newcastle had the some chances to win the match but a late try against the run of play to Jamie Soward sealed the match for St George Illawarra.

The win moves the Dragons to 36 points and with a massive for and against advantage over the nearest rivals, they can afford to lose next week's game against the Rabbitohs and still claim the minor premiership, while the loss draws the curtain on the Knights late-season surge to the finals.

The Dragons got the first points of the match in just the fifth minute of play when a slick cut-out pass from skipper Ben Hornby put winger Brett Morris on a 10-metre sprint to score in the corner.

Soward pushed his conversion attempt across the face of goal to leave the score 4-0 to the visitors.

The Dragons were in again in the 17th minute when lock-forward Jeremy Smith made a bust up the middle before offloading to hooker Dean Young who scored under the posts. Soward added the extras to make it 10-0.

St George Illawarra grabbed their third try in the 23rd minute in fortunate circumstances. Knights fullback Shannon McDonnell look to have a Soward high ball covered but it came down right on top of the pad on the right upright and bounced into the hands of Jason Nightingale, who touched down for the try. Soward converted to make it 16-0.

The Knights task was made harder when McDonnell succumb to a hamstring strain and was replaced by Wes Naiqama 14 minutes before half-time.

The Dragons crossed the tryline again on the half-hour mark but a ball-and-all tackle from Akuila Uate on Matt Cooper saw the representative centre held-up over the line.

The Knights needed to step up a gear and almost got back into the contest with chances to Adam MacDougall and winger Cooper Vuna, but the impressive Dragons defence was able to repel the attack as the red and whites went to the half-time break holding a handy 16-0 lead.

A Sampson-like try from Creagh continued the Dragons' momentum to start the second half. The State of Origin player bashed his way through four defenders before eventually being brought down just short of the line only to reach out with one arm and plant the ball over for a try. Soward converted from right in front to make it 22-0.

With their season on the line the Knights lifted again and eventually got on the board in the 48th minute when MacDougall produced one of his trademark bulldogging runs to slide over in the right corner.

It was the 82nd try for MacDougall for the Knights, breaking the all-time club record held by Timana Tahu. Gidley threaded the conversion from the sideline to