Gallen and Holmes steer Sharks to win over Wests Tigers

The high points for the visitors came from the busy centre pairing of Esan Marsters and Mahe Fonua, who each gave the Sharks headaches. But it proved to be a few defensive wobbles in the second half in the face of an improved Cronulla performance that cost them.

The Tigers opened the afternoon running into a driving wind and rain and with errors in both their opening two sets but some impressive scrambling defence combined with some sloppiness from their opponents helped them to a better share of the first half.

The visitors finished with 55 percent of the first half ball with help from eight Sharks errors, taking a 10-2 advantage to the break.

Their first two scoring plays were penalty goals, but they opted against a third penalty goal in the 20th minute instead opting to attack the line.

The decision reaped immediate rewards as Elijah Taylor threw a huge dummy from dummy-half then burrowed his way between Jayson Bukuya and Holmes for the only try of the opening 40 minutes.

Otherwise, the first stanza was largely a battle of attrition, with Luke Lewis scratched from the game midway through the half with a concussion and the Tigers losing Michael Chee Kam to the sin bin in the 33rd minute due to repeated infringements.

Holmes had an unhappy first stint backing up from Origin, producing the handling error that handed the Tigers attacking position to score their try before also missing the tackle, but got the second half kick-started in impressive fashion with a stunning 40-metre kick return to get his team out of trouble.

A couple of sets of good field position later and the Sharks hit back through skipper Paul Gallen, showing plenty of strength at the line to push through three Tigers defenders and plan the ball in the 49th minute.

Holmes then went 60metres better than his earlier kick return, hitting a nice Gallen pass at full pace and scorching through a scattered Tigers line to sprint the length of the field and score, handing the Sharks the lead for the first time in the match after 56 minutes.

The Sharks completed a nine-minute team hat-trick shortly after, rolling down the field with the help of a penalty before Wade Graham forced a drop out which led to Matt Moylan tossing a nice ball over the top to put Edrick Lee in the corner.

The Tigers weren't going away though and reduced the margin to 18-16 when a Luke Brooks short ball sent Chris Lawrence streaming through a gap with Tui Lolohea backing up to score in the 66th minute.

The Sharks muscled up in the final 15 minutes to ensure the Tigers were starved of attacking chances and instead it was a late try to Jesse Ramien, off a nice Holmes pass from a play started by a big Fifita carry and offload, that resulted in the centre beating several defenders to run 30 metres and score the match-winner.

News & Notes: Benji Marshall was a late withdrawal with a calf injury (set for 2-3 weeks on the sidelines) handing Josh Reynolds his first run-on start of the season... Luke Lewis was ruled out for the game after 20 minutes due to a concussion... Val Holmes now has seven tries in his past four games... Sharks next week at home to Brisbane... Wests Tigers host Canberra next Sunday... Crowd: 13,093