St George Illawarra eased the pressure on coach Nathan Brown with a much-needed 32-6 victory over the previously unbeaten Manly in a sometimes spiteful NRL clash at WIN Stadium on Saturday night.

While far short of their best, the Dragons finally showed the desperation and aggressiveness in defence Brown had been looking for during the club's four-game losing streak to start the season.

The Dragons held the Sea Eagles to just one try after having conceded an average 38 points per game over the opening four rounds.

Props Jason Ryles and Luke Bailey were awesome for the home side, and based on Saturday night's performance, both look likely to make the 22-man Australian squad on Monday for the Anzac Test against New Zealand on April 22.

The Dragons took a 10-6 lead into the halftime break following a 23rd minute try to fullback Ben Hornby, who got on the outside Manly centre Paul Stephenson.

They were given a warm round of applause as they headed for the sheds, unlike their last game at WIN Stadium in round two where they were booed off the field when trailing the Melbourne Storm 24-0.

Manly were their own worst enemies in the first half, piggy-backing the Dragons on far too many occasions with silly infringements in the play-the-ball area.

On one of the few occasions they got some good field position, former Dragon Brent Kite steamrolled Hornby to touch down under the posts, with Michael Witt landing the conversion for Manly's only points of the game.

It became a procession in the second half as the Dragons raced in 22 unanswered points, much to the delight of the 16,117 strong crowd.

Dean Young scored the Dragons' best four-pointer of the half following a clever offload from fellow interchange forward Corey Payne on his own 40m line.

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