It might have taken just shy of 100 NRL games but St. George-Illawarra prop Blake Lawrie can finally lay claim to a feat that was even he felt was a chance to allude him before retirement.
NRL try-scorer.
"A relief," the Dapto Canaries junior said with a smile after his valuable four-pointer saw the Dragons home in their see-sawing clash with the Bulldogs.
"It's a big relief I tell you that... 90-odd games and finally I’m a try scorer in the NRL.
"I was having a rest behind the play the ball and Ben Hunt tells me to get around and run a lead and I ran I lead and Macca [Andrew McCullough] hits me in the bread basket and I hit and spun and I scored.
"I just wanted to get a try before I retired.”
Some 1912 days after he made his debut in 2017, Lawrie broke his try scoring duck with a try off a line he figured he's run "hundreds" of time with no reward.
While it wasn’t a 40-metre chip and chase effort (although future telling and re-telling of his try scoring feats might be different), his 74th minute barge over try was a vital try not only for Lawrie but his team.
Lawrie breaks his duck and secures Saints win
The Dragons 34-24 win moves them to six wins and six losses after 12 rounds of the competition heading into the bye next week.
“Obviously I got a try today but the two points are more important," Lawrie said.
"That’s really crucial because we have the bye next week and then we go up to Townsville and we will be looking to get another two points against a good Cowboys team.
“The Bulldogs came out firing and the fans got behind them so it really was a crucial win.
"We haven’t played 80-minutes of footy yet. We showed good resilience but we have to put 80-minutes together and the sooner we do that the better we will be.”
For Lawrie, he is hoping his first trip across the stripe is not his last.
“Fingers crossed it’s not one and done,” he said. “I couldn’t even get myself together; all the boys jumped on me and grabbed me and head-butted me.
"I was like ‘how good is this’. I got swamped by the boys.
Match Highlights: Bulldogs v Dragons
"I’m happy it gives that reaction and gives that bit of pump up and hopefully it keeps rolling now.”
Coach Anthony Griffin said “everyone went up” when Lawrie touched down.
“I think I heard him from the coaching box. He has that money off his back now,” he said with a chuckle.
