By Matthew Mazzier Bautista for the Griffith Journal

22 August 2026

This past Wednesday, the Griffith Dragons capped off their regular season with a 62-12 win over the UQ Hounds.

The statement win now brings Griffith to seven wins in the year, having clinched the minor premiership last round with a win over the QUT Trouts.

Griffith went straight to work against the Hounds, with a 2^nd minute try through Terence Kane following Ethan Lawrence’s draw and pass around UQ’s fullback.

With the scores at 4-0, the Griffith forwards marched up the field off the restart forcing UQ to start their set on their own 10-metre line.

Minutes later, Devante Ioane’s hit up broke UQ’s defensive line, allowing Emmanuel Tupigo to put over Ethan Lawrence with a flick pass to the right edge, increasing Griffith’s lead to 8-0 in the 8^th minute.

The Dragons scored again in the 10^th minute, with a Lachlan Moore dummy splitting the UQ defence allowing Warao Kaeok to score, making the score 14-0.

With UQ putting on the pressure, Warao Kaeok stood up again, intercepting the ball and taking it to the Hound’s 10-metre line.

Lachlan Moore capped off the effort with a 16^th minute try on the left edge to put the scores at 20-0.

Griffith went about with their game management, forcing a UQ error in their own half.

Dragons’ hooker Jessie Osborne scooted out of dummy-half to score right of the posts, making the scores 26-0 in the 22^nd minute.

UQ later scored in the 29^th minute with a try on the left edge, decreasing Griffith’s lead to 26-6.

The Hounds continued to put the pressure on Griffith with a line break giving them solid attacking position.

But the Dragons’ defence held them out, leaving the scores at 26-6 as the teams went into the half-time break.

The teams battled for territory coming out of the half, but it was a Griffith line-break that had UQ on their heels.

Jessie Osborne and Lachlan Moore took advantage of the field positioning, combining to put Warao Kaeok over for his second try, making the score 32-6 in the 41^st minute.

Following the restart, the Dragons shifted the ball left, with a Warao Kaeok line break allowing Alex Samuel to score in the 44^th minute.

The game restarted at 38-6 with both teams producing back-to-back errors within 20-seconds of each other.

Jessie Osborne took matters into his own hands, with a 60-metre solo effort from the scrum to score to the right of the posts, increasing Griffith’s hold over the game at 44-6 in the 47^th minute.

Griffith produced an error which put them under immediate pressure following the restart.

Conceding a penalty just moments later, the Dragons’ defence broke granting UQ a 51^st minute try underneath the post making the scores 44-12.

As the game restarted, Griffith was determined to regain momentum, dragging UQ out into touch, halting the Hound’s push back up the field.

With the pressure building, UQ conceded a penalty, allowing Jessie Osborne to complete his hattrick in the 56^th minute.

With the Dragons reaching the 50-point milestone, they showed no signs of slowing down.

A Jack Day cutout pass gave Emmanuel Tupigo open pasture to run into, increasing Griffith’s lead to 56-12 in the 58^th minute.

The game began to fizzle out with errors creeping in before Ben Rynsbergen capped off Griffith’s scoring with a crash play, leaving the final score at 62-12.

Dragons’ coach Rob Lewis was pleased with the team’s performance, labelling his squad’s efforts a ‘statement game preparing for the finals.’

When asked about preparation for their upcoming semi-finals clash against the QUT Trouts, Lewis highlighted the Dragons’ ability to manage the game.

“Today you saw, we just got to play our game.

“When we play our game and we control it, we don’t need to push the ball when we don’t have to, and we can score at will.

“So the idea is, control it, game management.

“The skills there, we can defend – we defended on our line for how many sets today?

“We can attack whenever we want.

“It’s just the team keeping it together, (and) game management.”

The Dragon’s semi-final fixture against the QUT Trouts takes place next week Wednesday August 26.

This will be Griffith’s last home game, so be sure keep an eye on the Dragons’ socials for the details for that fixture.

Keep up to date with the latest on the Dragons’ Instagram page: @griffithdragonsrlc