Dragons lock Robbie Noble was sent from the field in the second-half after a fight, and Dragons coach Matt Burke was happy with the way his side dug deep.

"We toughed it out and just could not get there in the end," Burke said.

"How Robbie can get sent off for that I don't know. One bloke follows him and starts a fight and our bloke gets sent off.

"But full credit to Mittagong, they played well and it was a good wet weather game of football."

Lions coach Grahame Andrews said, given the conditions, his side played to their game plan.

"Our security was pretty ordinary and we kept playing them back into the game," Andrews said.

"They lead early and we came back by half-time, I really thought we would have gone on with it from there.

"They lost a player but they managed to stay with us."

The match showed the spark of what a local derby is all about in the second minute, with players clashing over an apparent high tackle by the Lions on the Dragons after a tap.

The Dragons had a penalty in the Lions 20-metre zone and soon crossed through Don Cochran.

However, Cochran was ruled to be held up. The Dragons threw the ball wide and representative prop George Ghazal crashed through to score a try.

With the conversion unsuccessful, the Dragons took a 4-nil lead.

The Lions then crossed through winger Tim Martin, however,

he was ruled to have taken out

the corner post as he crossed the line.

The Dragons then made a bust through captain Brett Harris, who ran 50-metres before putting winger Colin Lowe into space.

However, Lions prop Wiremu Parker chased down the speedy winger and pulled him into touch.

But the Dragons attacked again, and Ghazal scored his second try after running onto a Mark Tapper pass.

Donnie Cochran converted the try and the Dragons had a 10-nil lead.

The Lions then scored a try under the posts when prop BJ Ngan Woo crashed through the Dragons defence and ran 60 metres to score under the posts.

With Jamie Newton converting the try, the Lions were trailing 10-6.

The Lions then scored when some strong defence by Lions centre Scott Shepherd forced the ball loose from a Dragons attacker.

Tim Neven scooped up the ball and ran 15 metres to score the Lions' second try.

Newton converted and the Lions were leading 12-10 into the break.