St George Illawarra moved into the NRL's top eight for the first time this season with a 34-12 victory over Penrith at WIN Stadium.

The Dragons have now won five of their past six matches and are back to the form which had them rated as third-favourites to win the premiership in the pre-season.

Penrith continued its horror run at Wollongong, where it has failed to notch a victory since 1991.

To make matters worse for the Panthers, their New Zealand international Frank Pritchard was placed on report for a 68th minute high shot on winger Nick Youngquest.

Tonight's encounter featured 12 players chosen in the 30-man NSW Origin squad (seven Dragons, five Panthers) but did not live up to its billing as a showpiece match.

Dragons centre Matt Cooper is virtually assured of a Blues jersey after scoring a brace of tries in the second half when his team scored 28 points to Penrith's four.

Skipper Trent Barrett should be NSW five-eighth for this month's opening Origin after bagging a 64th minute individual try and setting up winger Colin Best for another five minutes later.

When Best gave the final pass for Cooper to score a 70m try in the 71st minute, the Dragons led 34-8 after trailing 8-6 at halftime.

In the 51st minute they regained the lead but not without a heavy dose of controversy.

Incumbent NSW centre Gasnier beat Paul Franze and Craig Gower to score in the right corner but Dragons lock Shaun Timmins clearly knocked on from dummy half before the ball was spread from the ruck.

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