He would later earn a reprieve when play was stopped for several minutes after fellow recruit Allan was heavily concussed in a three-man Dragons tackle, prompting significant concern from medicos of both clubs.
Lewis was playing his first NRL game since being concussed in the Good Friday belting at the hands of South Sydney, in which the Bulldogs were fined $20,000 for not immediately withdrawing him from play. The club has appealed the severity of the fine.
But he was also an early withdrawal as the Dragons turned on the afterburners having scrambled to a 6-0 lead the break.
Id be lying if I said it wasnt [hard]. You go through the players were missing, probably seven blokes who make our starting side tonight
Trent Barrett
Barrett said the sin binning of Will Hopoate for obstructing Jack Bird was extremely harsh as St George Illawarra piled on three tries in the next 10 minutes as Matt Dufty finished with a double.
Its hard, Barrett said of the rebuild. Id be lying if I said it wasnt. You go through the players were missing, probably seven blokes who make our starting side tonight. But were not helping ourselves and that was plain to see and weve still got to be better than what we were.
The Bulldogs looked like being kept scoreless for the fourth time this season before Renouf Atoni mugged Jack Bird in a one-on-one steal and Nick Meaney scored a long-range intercept try. They remain the only team this season with just one win.
Having lost their last three matches, Anthony Griffins Dragons were nothing like the side which ripped through the opening five rounds but still found enough to heap further misery on long-suffering Canterbury fans.
Debutant winger Mat Feagai scored a crucial second-half try as he shared the big stage with twin Max while 19-year-old rookie Junior Amone, who was playing SG Ball last week, scored seven minutes into his first game of NRL.
It was a scratchy performance, it wasnt a great performance, Griffin said. We got ourselves in a lot of trouble in that first half with ill discipline with the ball, but defensively we hung in well.
Im happy with the result, the boys have obviously been coming in on the wrong end of the scoreboard the last few weeks and we did what we needed to do. Weve only been going nine weeks, but at times weve been able to compete really hard with the top four sides. Were still building towards that.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 32 (Matt Dufty 2, Mat Feagai, Paul Vaughan, Corey Norman, Junior Amone tries; Corey Norman 4 goals) defeatedCANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS 12 (Renouf Atoni, Nick Meaney tries; Kyle Flanagan 2 goals) at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins. Crowd: 7253.
St George Illawarra woke up from a first-half slumber to pile further pain on Canterbury as Trent Barrett made the boldest call of his NRL coaching career.
