Ben Barba stars as Cronulla Sharks earn bragging rights with win over Dragons

St George Illawarra captain Ben Creagh revealed that a call from a Cronulla player to pass the ball caused him to hesitate just moments before being upended by diminutive Sharks fullback Ben Barba in a spectacular try saving tackle at Remondis Stadium,

The 54th-minute tackle by 90kg Barba was being lauded by the Sharks as a turning point in the 28-8 win which now has them just outside the top eight on for and against as Creagh only needed to fall across the tryline to reduce the Dragons deficit to 16-10 after trailing 16-0 until the 39th minute.

Barba was penalised for lifting Creagh into a dangerous position but Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan and captain Paul Gallen praised the 2012 Dally M medal winner for his effort after coming off the interchange bench to replace concussed fullback Michael Gordon.

Lovely stuff: Valentine Holmes flies over for a try to Cronulla. Photo: Getty Images

"I thought it was a cracker, it was unbelievable, on a guy who is a 105kg or 110kg front-rower," Gallen said. "That was a real game-changer for us."

Flanagan added: "I think it was real important at the time, if they scored their confidence would have gone through the roof and we would have been going 'this isn't supposed to happen'. I was disappointed he got penalised. I thought it was a really good tackle, one on one, and he had to make it".

However, Creagh said he had been tricked by a Cronulla player calling his name and looked inside to pass the ball when he should have just crashed over the tryline.   

"Unfortunately back on the inside one of the Sharks boys called my name and I thought it was one of our guys so I looked back on the inside to pass the ball and as soon as I turned around he was there tackling me," Creagh said. "But it was a real good tackle."

Without 13 of their top 25 man squad, including Benji Marshall (hamstring), Trent Merrin (suspended) and Josh Dugan (rested), the Dragons were always going to struggle but coach Paul McGregor was unimpressed by their first half commitment.

A Charly Runciman try just before halftime kept them in the game and it wasn't until Andrew Fifita crossed in the 65th minute that the Sharks could be sure of the two competition points.

However, the Dragons have now slumped to seventh place and are one of four teams - along with Melbourne, Canterbury and Cronulla - on 20 points after their fifth consecutive defeat.

McGregor predicted afterwards that those teams would need to win four of their remaining eight matches to make the final eight and six or seven to finish in the top four.

While he refused to blame the club's high injury toll, McGregor explained that the absence of Thompson, Merrin and fellow backrowers Tyson Frizell (back) was having a significant impact.

"You lose your two secondrowers who play 80 minutes, Trent Merrin plays 60 minutes, Jack de Belin plays 60 plus minutes and he is not playing, and over the last few weeks we haven't had those players who play long minutes," McGregor said.

"All of a sudden Ben Creagh, Lesson Ah Mau and Mike Cooper have got to extend themselves a lot longer than they normally would in a game so we lose that focus of what we are really good at, which is line speed, intent and having a lot of energy.

"We were coming at them the whole game but you can't do that with guys playing long minutes. Benny has gone from playing 30 or 40 minutes to playing 60 minutes. Until we get numbers backs we can't do anything about that but today we didn't start with any intent."