DRAGONS BREATHING FIRE AS MCCULLOUGH CELEBRATES IN STYLE

Andrew McCullough's second season at the Dragons after 260 games at Brisbane and eight in Newcastle, the 32-year-old got through a team-high 37 tackles and made 38 running meters in his milestone match. The win was the Dragons' seventh of the season and carries them into the top eight for the time being at least. The signs were bad for the Rabbitohs early when Lachlan Ilias spilled the kick-off and they continued to make errors through the opening 15 minutes as the Dragons took control. First to cross was skipper Ben Hunt, who chipped over the top for Zac Lomax to regather before taking the return pass from his center to score in the fifth minute. Seven minutes later the home side were in again when winger Mikaele Ravalawa celebrated his return from a hamstring injury by finishing off superb lead-up work by young playmaker Talatau Amone and the score was 12-0. Come the 15th minute and Jack de Belin had the WIN Stadium faithful in raptures when he powered through a Tom Burgess tackle to cross for his third try of the season and the Dragons were keeping pace with the clock. Ravalawa had a double by the 19th minute when he took a flick pass from Lomax and turned Alex Johnston inside out to make it 20-0. With Hunt's kicking game on song the Dragons dominated field position and the No.7 had a second try assist in the 24th minute when he launched a bomb and Moses Suli produced a fingertip catch to plunge over for his team's fifth try.

Cody Ramsey got in on the action three minutes later when he ran onto a Jack Bird pass and shrugged off Jaxson Paulo to grab his fifth try in six games at WIN Stadium. Ilias was taken from the field by Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou after an unhappy 29 minutes, forcing a reshuffle which saw Kodi Nikorima shift to the halves and Blake Taaffe go to fullback. The Dragons went down a man in the 38th minute when Amone was sent to the sin bin for holding Cody Walker back as he tried to support a Mark Nicholls break. A spilled bomb by Ramsey in the 58th minute opened the door for Souths to finally get on the board when Damien Cook snuck over from dummy half to make it 32-6.

Bunnies skipper Cameron Murray exposed some sloppy defence to cross under the sticks in the 62nd minute to cut the margin to 20 but an intercept by Hunt in the next set steadied the ship for the Dragons. Although the home side were unable to find another try the damage had been well and truly done in the first half as five tries in 22 minutes put their arch-rivals to the sword.