They may be making their coach's hair go greyer by the day, but the Wests Tigers ensured their top-eight hopes remained alive with a 32-24 NRL win over St George Illawarra at Oki Jubilee Stadium.

Not for the first time this season the Tigers built a big lead only to see it disintegrate before their eyes over the back end of the game.

The visitors looked like they had put the game away when a Pat Richards double within the first 10 minutes of the second half extended their advantage to 32-6, but once again the Tigers had to withstand a furious Dragons fightback.

Urged on by a 10,612-strong crowd, the Dragons scored tries through second rowers Ben Creagh and Corey Payne to make it 32-18 with 14 minutes remaining.

But even a Michael Ennis try out of dummy half near fulltime couldn't overhaul the Tigers' lead in a comeback that always looked like it would run out of the time.

"We nearly did it (blew a lead) again today," said Tigers coach Tim Sheens in reference to the meeting between the two joint-venture outfits earlier this year in which the Dragons stormed home to take the points.

"(I was) pretty nervous the back end of that second half," Sheens added.

"We showed again that we're capable of doing some good things. We're still underpowered a bit around the ruck area at times, but nevertheless the 17 guys put in."

Skipper and halfback Scott Prince, who had a hand in three of his side's six tries, said the Tigers needed to play out the full game if they were to be any hope of making the finals.

"Of the games we've played there's probably a couple that we've played the full 80," Prince said.

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