St George Illawarra have fallen agonisingly short of defying the odds as the injury-hit visitors went down 14-10 to New Zealand.
The Dragons stunned the ladder-leading Canberra Raiders a fortnight ago before backing this gutsy performance up with a derby victory against Cronulla.
Yet despite being in a confident mood, Shane Flanagan’s side were thrown into disarray just 15 minutes into their meeting with the Warriors.
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Dragons denied famous win after nightmare injury toll wreaks havoc
The Red V had to activate their 18th man - the previously demoted Tyrell Sloan - after Jack de Belin and Hamish Stewart collided in defence.
The two forwards lay motionless on the turf in Auckland as they were attended to by the club’s medical staff.
After being helped from the field both men were ruled category one HIAs, which rubbed them out for the rest of the contest.
However, St George Illawarra’s early misfortune didn’t end there.
Jacob Halangahu and Hame Sele were brought on as the stricken duo’s replacements, although the latter soon joined his teammates in the casualty ward after he too copped a heavy knock while attempting to make a tackle.
James Fisher-Harris had skittled de Belin and Stewart, before a trademark Dallin Watene-Zelezniak charge resulted in Sele getting hurt.
Despite the unprecedented injury carnage, the Red V actually had the best of the first half action.
Mat Feagai opened the scoring after 10 minutes before doubling his side’s lead in the 20th minute.
Andrew Webster’s outfit responded with an eye-catching ad-lib four-pointer via Chanel Harris-Tavita in the shadows of halftime.
An error-riddled Warriors were unable to press home their significant advantage in the second stanza, until Adam Pompey finally sliced through untouched to level the scores at 10-all.
Sloan was introduced into the action with 15 minutes remaining on the clock.
And he was brought on to play fullback, with captain Clint Gutherson shifting to lock as Flanagan tried to manage his ravaged pack as best as he could.
Spurred on by a vocal home crowd, the Warriors understandably finished over the top of the Dragons, who were simply unable to keep pace in the closing stages.
Pompey claimed his second and the match-winner in the 73rd minute to help snap a three-game losing streak that allowed the Warriors to climb back into the top four after Penrith's loss to Melbourne in the opening match of the round.