Dragons coach Wayne Bennett and Darius Boyd
Premiers St George Illawarra started the new NRL season with a win, but an incident involving referee, Phil Haines grabbed some of the spotlight.
Dragons’ fullback, Darius Boyd scored two tries in the 25-16 result against Gold Coast Titans at Robina in front of a crowd of 21,709, with the home side down 12-6 at halftime.
One of Boyd’s tries – 15 minutes into the second half – was the big talking point. Boyd crossed after his Titans’ opposite, William Zillman collided with ‘pocket referee’ Phil Haines. These were the days of two referees with Jared Maxwell the other man with the whistle.
Zillman, the son of former Valleys’ forward, Mark Zillman, looked certain to claim a Jamie Soward kick close to the Titans’ line but Haines blocked his path and as the ball bounced Boyd simply picked it up and scored. Rather than packing a scrum as is allowed under the rules, video referee Steve Clark signalled a try.
St George Illawarra halfback, Jamie Soward’s kicking game was spot-on, whereas his opposite, Scott Prince did not have his best night.
Making his debut for the Dragons was inter-change forward Mitch Rein, an apprentice electrician from Wollongong.
The Dragons also won the under-20s match 38-4.
I covered both matches for The Sunday Mail. Dragons’ coach, Wayne Bennett was in the mood for a chat, and I almost missed my deadline after staying in the dressing rooms having a one-on-one with the great man. Also in the sheds was my former Norths’ teammate, Chris ‘Compass’ Kallis, his nickname the result of him having played for Norths, Souths, Easts and Wests in the Brisbane competition. Chris knew Wayne Bennett from their Souths’ days.
On this day I learned of the passing of former Balmain and Sydney Wests’ centre, Gil MacDougall aged 70. Gil represented New South Wales in three inter-state matches in 1963, and played in the 1962 and ’63 Sydney Grand Finals for Wests, with St George winning both games. Gil was rated by some critics as unlucky not to be selected for the 1963-64 Kangaroo tour of Britain and France.
Gil was the father of four footballing sons – Adam, Ben, Luke and Scott, with Adam playing rugby league for Australia and Ben rugby union for Scotland (under the grandparent rule).
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