The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Dragons to beat Warriors despite centre shake-up

Dylan Farrell may be forced into early NRL retirement with injury. (Photo: www.photosport.co.nz)
Roar Guru
18th April, 2014
9

The Dragons host the Warriors on Saturday at 5:30pm, which will be the second time these two sides have clashed in 2014.

St George Illawarra took out that clash 31-12, and the bookies have Dragons as favourites to win.

Both teams come off close losses last up and will gain some confidence from their performances.

The Dragons coach has named an unchanged side despite Dylan Farrell seriously injuring himself last up. Presumably the choice of Farrell’s replacement was something he needed to give further consideration.

With Charly Runciman currently playing well in the centres in NSW Cup for the Illawarra Cutters, he seemingly the obvious replacement. Price will most likely make a game day announcement.

Other possibilities are NSW Cup fullback Peter Mata’Utia, centre Nathan Green or perhaps moving a second rower such as Joel Thompson or Will Matthews to the centres. Maybe Price will experiment with fill-in fullback Quinlan or Josh Dugan at centre.

Last week also was the first time that there was no utility back on the bench for the Dragons and maybe this signals a preference for extra forward strength.

With the Dragons having lost through a Storm play which was allowed to proceed after the fulltime hooter sounded, little attention has been paid to another aspect of the closing minutes last week.

Advertisement

The Dragons were reduced to 12 men for the last 88 seconds after a bungled concussion replacement by coach Price.

Personally, I have always thought that Charly Runciman should have been given a chance of playing in the centres for the Dragons this season, but we will see what Price comes up with.

The Warriors coach also seems troubled by the centre position, with the impressive Conrad Hurrell being dropped for an apparently poor defensive performance last week. That is despite Hurrell scoring a try and making a game-high 157 metres in the 21-20 defeat to the Bulldogs.

He also racked up five tackle breaks and one linebreak.

The omission of Hurrell from the reorganised Warriors side is a real mystery. It leaves the Warriors with only one experienced centre, with Ngani Laumape the replacement.

I expect the Warriors to do better than they did at Eden Park in Round 2, but they will still lose this game narrowly.

St George Illawarra
1 Josh Dugan, 2 Brett Morris, 3 Dylan Farrell, 4 Gerard Beale, 5 Jason Nightingale, 6 Gareth Widdop, 7 Michael Witt, 8 Jack Stockwell, 9 Mitch Rein, 10 Dan Hunt, 11 Joel Thompson, 12 Ben Creagh (c), 13 Trent Merrin Interchange: 14 Bronson Harrison, 15 Will Matthews, 16 Mike Cooper, 17 Leeson Ah Mau

Warriors
1 Sam Tomkins, 2 David Fusitua, 3 Dane Nielsen, 4 Ngani Laumape, 5 Manu Vatuvei, 6 Thomas Leuluai, 7 Shaun Johnson, 8 Sam Rapira, 9 Nathan Friend, 10 Jacob Lillyman, 11 Dominique Peyroux, 12 Jayson Bukuya, 13 Simon Mannering (c) Interchange: 14 Siliva Havili, 15 Suaia Matagi, 16 Charlie Gubb, 17 Ben Henry, 18 Tuimoala Lolohea

Advertisement
close