By Riley O’Leary for the Griffith Journal

4 June 2026

The Griffith Dragons have flexed their premiership muscle with a dominant 54-12 win against UniSC Spartans at the Nathan Fields on Wednesday night.

The win at home cements the Dragons position at the top of the URLQ ladder as the only undefeated team in 2026.

The Dragons were dominant from the outset, never falling behind on the scoreboard against a UniSC team who were also undefeated heading into the clash.

A few early errors required strong line defence from the Dragons, pushing UniSC away from scoring on back-to-back occasions early.

Starting front rowers Ben Rynsbergen and Izzy Fulton were very impactful from the outset, with their double punch putting the Dragons in excellent field position

This momentum led to a Ben Rynsbergen try in the 5^th minute, crashing over the line under the posts to give the Dragons an early 6-0 lead.

As was the case throughout the entire match, the Dragons were excellent in yardage and were able to pin UniSC in their own corner in their first set after points.

An excellent kick return from Richard Sarufa put the Dragons in great attacking field position, which led to a Walter Malie try in the 9^th minute to put Griffith ahead 10-0.

UniSC managed to wrestle back the momentum, forcing Griffith to dig deep and defend two sets on their line, including a strong try-saver from explosive centre Liam Sorensen in the corner.

However, UniSC were able to take advantage of this pressure, scoring in the 16^th minute to bring the score back to 10-6.

Some excellent defence and tough carries from the Dragons gave them the momentum once again.

This culminated in an Emmanuel Tupigo try off an Iverson Kennach pass to extend the Dragons lead to 16-6 in the 23^rd minute.

The Dragons continued their dominance over the next few sets.

The Dragons patience and discipline was a standout of their performance on Wednesday night – limiting their errors and penalties conceded allowed the dominance of their forward pack to set a winning platform throughout the entire match.

This patience allowed the Dragons to cash in to end the half: a try in the 31^st minute was quickly followed up by a try from a Ben Rynsbergen line break in the 34^th, giving Griffith a 28-6 lead going into half time.

The half-time break did nothing to slow down the Dragons, with the one-two punch of Fulton and Rynsbergen getting the Dragons to halfway in just two tackles off the kick-off, highlighting their dominance in yardage throughout the fixture.

Iverson Kennach then broke the line, and Jessie Osborne brilliantly finished the try to extend the Dragons lead to 32-6 in the first set of the second half.

Lachlan Moore follows up with an excellent line break, taking his team 70 metres down the field to set up an attacking set immediately from kick-off.

However, the Dragons only needed another play to score, with some crafty work from Jessie Osbourne at dummy half giving him his second try in just as many touches to extend Griffith’s lead to 38-6 in the 41^st minute.

Rynsbergen’s dominance continued – running 30 metres off the kick off kept UniSC on the back foot, and the Dragons were once again able to capitalise as he crashed over in the 44^th minute to extend the lead to 42-6.  

A melee broke out on field in the 51^st minute which left a Dragons player in the sin bin.

However, being a man down didn’t slow Griffith down, who scored only four minutes later thanks to a solo effort from Jessie Osborne to seal a second-half hattrick for the dummy half.

In fact, UniSC didn’t look like scoring at all throughout the sin bin period, even with the extra player.

In the 61^st minute the Dragons broke the half century, with a Jessie Osbourne chip allowing Emmanuel Tupigo to score his hattrick and extend Griffith’s lead to 54-6.

A late consolation try saved some pride for the UniSC Spartans, with the full time score being 54-12.  

Ben Rynsbergen was a standout for the Dragons, taking multiple carries every set for 15-20 metres on average each carry and he was the most influential player in how dominant the Dragons were for fixture.

Playing the entire match in the front row also added another element to his outstanding performance.

Halfback Lachlan Moore was excellent as well, capitalising on the momentum generated with some calm halfback play to ensure that his team made the most of the positions they were in.

Jessie Osborne was another standout, with his second half hattrick an appropriate reward for consistency in his performances throughout the season.

The entire team played excellently – strong early set carries from outside backs, punch through the middle and craft and calmness in the spine were the main contributors to the Dragons dominant performance.

Ben Rynsbergen attributed the strong team performance to some tough love from coach Rob Lewis earlier in the week.

“On Monday we had a bit of a spray, you know.

“We weren’t up to par last few weeks, you know, so had a spray, ripped in at training and there we go.

“All good.”

Halfback Lachlan Moore was thrilled with the win and noted the toughness of his team in such a physical contest.

“I know the score doesn’t reflect it, but it was still a tough physical game, but we just stuck to what we’ve been doing at training, we just killed it,” he said.

With the competition now heading into a seven week mid-season break, Moore believes that it will be a challenge for the team to remain together, however is confident that everyone will be back and firing when it counts.  

“It’s going to be hard because a lot of people are going home.

“I think there’s going to be two sessions a week now still, so the boys will keep fit and keep into it, ready to go again.

There is a chance that the Dragons rescheduled fixture from two weeks ago will take place next week, also at home against UniSC.

If not, the Dragons will return to play on Wednesday 22 July with an away fixture against QUT Trouts.