St George Illawarra sunk to their sixth loss in their past nine games, but it's NSW coach Laurie Daley who has the most to be concerned about, with Blues pair Tyson Frizell and Josh Dugan both injured in the Dragons 20-10Â loss to the Titans on Friday.
Frizell came from the field with the apparent recurrence of a niggling rib injury in the 45th minute and Dugan followed him just seven minutes later, finishing the match on the bench with ice on his right knee. Both were certain to be named in Daley's side for the Origin decider but are now under an injury cloud with game three just 12 days away.Â
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Queensland's Josh McGuire and New South Wales' Tyson Frizell and Josh Dugan all suffered injuries in their Friday night matches.
While Jarryd Hayne's commanding performance at fullback for the Titans would have made for pleasant viewing for Daley, the injuries to two of his key men will no doubt be his biggest concern ahead of selecting his 17 for game three.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor will have a few headaches of his own given his side's lacklustre attacking effort, that looked to have been pulled straight out of their 2016 playbook.
They were the most potent attacking side in the competition over the opening half of the season, but twice settled for penalty goals after breaking the hosts open through the middle in a try-less first half.
The Titans made them pay on both occasions through cult hero Anthony Don, who had a first half double as the hosts led 10-4 at halftime. He completed his hat-trick moments after Dugan left the field in the second half and the hosts were never headed.
It means the Dragons will head into their round 18 bye badly out of sorts, with their only wins in the past five weeks coming over the Tigers and Knights who play in Sunday's 'Spoon Bowl' in Newcastle on Sunday. They remain entrenched in the top eight, but will have some soul-searching to do in the 14 days before their round 19 away clash with the Raiders.Â
Gareth Widdop opened the scoring with a third minute penalty goal but the Titans hit back seven minutes later with Don producing an incredible one-handed grab of a well-weighted Ash Taylor kick, fending off Jason Nightingale with the other, to plant the ball. Taylor's attempted conversion bounced off the upright keeping the margin to two after 11 minutes.
Widdop slotted his second penalty goal to level things up at four points apiece after 24 minutes, but it proved a wasted opportunity, with Don bagging his second two sets later after Hayne caught the Dragons short on their left edge.
The Titans took a six-point buffer into the break via a penalty goal to Tyrone Roberts and led 16-4 on the back of Don's third try, again courtesy of a Hayne long ball 14 minutes after the resumption.
The Dragons finally got across through Kurt Mann, who shifted from halfback to the left wing after Dugan limped off, with Widdop nailing the sideline conversion to get back within six with 20 minutes play.
Roberts put the margin beyond a converted try with his second penalty goal 10 minutes from fulltime, with the Titans good enough to close the match out from there.