ST GEORGE Illawarra played like St George Illawarra, and Manly played like St George Illawarra. But the Sea Eagles did it better, which is why they lost.

The Dragons were always going to be difficult opponents for Manly.

The Sea Eagles had won four games in a row but there were still key elements of their game that had not been up to their normal standards, and as erratic as St George Illawarra can be they are one team that - because of their occasional brilliance - you don't want to be facing if your own game is a bit off.

The Sea Eagles began the game indifferently and got themselves into real trouble when halfback Matt Orford put a clearing kick out on the full in the sixth minute and second-rower Anthony Watmough clashed heads with a teammate while making a tackle in the seventh. Watmough wobbled around concussed, but stayed on the field after treatment only to immediately become the weak link in Manly's defence for St George Illawarra's first try.

Whether Dragons second-rower Beau Scott deliberately picked Watmough out to run at or whether Watmough just happened to be in the way, Watmough fell off the tackle and Scott scored.

But what penalties there were early in the match were all going Manly's way and the Dragons are one of those sides that find it hard to hold out against a good team that is getting down the field cheaply. The Dragons have become famous for their ill-discipline over the years as well, so it didn't surprise when they backchatted referee Jason Robinson over one of those penalty decisions and gave away another 10m.

The Sea Eagles gratefully accepted the piggy-back, scoring a try through winger David Williams and hitting the lead off Orford's conversion. But their game still wasn't sharp and when a Soward bomb bounced off the back of Williams and into touch, just 15m off the Manly line, it was lucky there wasn't a dog crouched under the bench Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler sat at, because he surely would have kicked it.

Off the ensuing set and across the other side of the field, Michael Robertson made it an unfortunate wingers' double when he dropped Soward's bomb and Dragons halfback Ben Hornby scored. The Dragons had not yet been awarded a penalty and had conceded four, but they were in front, 10-6. Dragons fans wouldn't have been shocked by that, because there is often no rhyme or reason behind their team succeeding or otherwise.

Sometimes, you need a timely bit of calm from a man with more experience than most when you're trying to get back on track.

Enter Steve Menzies, who received the ball when he shouldn't have been within range of scoring himself, but who dummied twice, brushed off a Soward tackle, got his tall frame down low and made it to the line for a Manly try. Orford's conversion gave the home side a 12-10 lead they took to the break, but the two-point advantage meant nothing except to punters who had Manly first in half-time-full-time doubles.

The uncertainty that hung around both teams meant it was going to be well into the second half before we could even hope to predict which team was going to win. If someone could hang on to the ball for a bit longer than either team had managed in the first half, or come up with a piece of brilliance, or prey off an opposition mistake, or just get lucky, it had the potential to make a huge difference.

St George Illawarra got lucky 14 minutes into the second half, when a Soward bomb came down as anybody's ball. Multiple sets of hands from both sides reached skywards and the ball came off a couple before Dragons winger Jason Nightingale fastened a grip on it and planted it over the line. It was a close call as to whether a Dragons player had knocked the ball forward initially, but after watching numerous replays video referee Phil Cooley awarded the try.

The Dragons were in front for the third time in the match, but could they hang on? It was, after all, still a long, long way from home. They fell behind one more time, before hitting the lead again - this time for good - inside the last five minutes. It always looked like being last scorer wins.