Souths upset the Dragons

Colin Best (18th minute), Ben Lowe (29th), Jamie Simpson (57th), Nathan Merritt (59th) and Eddy Pettybourne (71st) also scored tries for Souths whose hopes of making the top-eight playoffs faded long ago but have now caused St. George to doubt their finals credentials.

St. George coach Wayne Bennett said his team's clash with seventh-placed Parramatta in next week's final regular season round would determine whether Friday's loss was more than an aberration. Parramatta beat Penrith 48-6 Friday to carry strong late-season momentum toward the first playoffs round.

“We will know (next week) whether we're in a slump or not,” Bennett said.

“If we can't get the best out of ourselves back at Kogarah (St. George's home ground) then we won't be in the playoffs for too long. We will make up a couple of weeks and then it will be the end of our season.”

St. George conceded more points against lowly Souths than in any other game this season.

“It was embarrassing in the end, that is the best way to sum it up,” said captain Ben Hornby.

“All season we've prided ourselves on defense and tonight it was non-existent.”

The Bulldogs capitalized on the Dragons' surprise loss to take the outright championship lead, and title favoritism, with a 40-20 win over the New Zealand Warriors.

A crowd of more than 40,000 watched the match, which served as an early farewell for long-serving Bulldogs utility back Hazem El Masri.

Center Josh Morris scored three of the Bulldog's six tries while El Masri was denied a try but marked his farewell with eight goals.

Gold Coast came back from an early 12-0 deficit to beat Wests 36-24, to join St. George-Illawarra in second place, two points behind the Bulldogs. Wests dropped to 10th on the table and retain only slim playoffs hopes.

Former Australian rugby union international Mat Rogers created a try for dangerous newcomer Sam Tagataese and scored another to lift Gold Coast out of a late 24-24 deadlock.

“A 12-0 scoreline so early is scary against them, they're a real momentum side,” Gold Coast coach John Cartwright said.

“It could have got ugly had it got to 18-0.”

Fourth-placed Melbourne beat Sydney City 38-4, fifth-placed Brisbane beat Queensland 16-10 and Manly sealed a playoffs place with a 18-16 win Sunday over Cronulla.

A late try to David Farrar sealed Manly's win over a Cronulla side reduced to 12 men after 27 minutes when prop Luke Douglas was sent off for a swinging arm. Douglas is only the second player to be sent off in an NRL match this season.

Cronulla led 10-0 at halftime but Manly struggled back into the match, clinching its win with Farrar's try in the 79th minute.

Canberra and eighth-placed Newcastle meet in the final match of the round today.

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