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With only one game under his belt Benji Marshall has already proven to be a perfect fit for the Dragons.
Benji, with his dropped ball, stripped ball and misguided passes, looked like he had been playing with the Dragons all year in his debut against the Parramatta Eels.
His teammates fully supported these efforts with an appalling completion rate and bad defence.
The Dragons’ defence was uncharacteristically good for the first 20 minutes, before eventually letting in a try outside an increasingly frustrated Brett Morris, who nevertheless seems destined for certain State of Origin selection for NSW.
So, with a bye next weekend and Brett Morris, Trent Merrin and possibly Josh Dugan off to play Origin, what have we learnt out of Benji’s first game for the Dragons?
Firstly, coach Steve Price threw Benji in the deep end with only three training sessions with the team and made him play the full game at halfback.
Despite this, Benji showed enough glimpses to suggest that, as he settles in with the bye and the next match against Souths after Origin 1, he will deliver the goods for the Dragons with a few more games under his belt.
It was Benji’s good pass that sent Mike Cooper over in the first half, only to be incorrectly called forward by the referee, who then disallowed another Dragons try after failing to play advantage when the Eels knocked-on.
It was these two refereeing errors that resulted in the Dragons losing all composure and putting on a game of panic football, which resulted in their complete demise in the second half.
The referees for this game thoroughly deserve to join the Dragons with a bye or demotion to NSW Cup this weekend, but strangely coach Steve Price has not commented on the officials’ performance.
Steve Price has also been silent on not naming one of the best Dragons forwards all year, Mike Cooper, in the squad for this game and then recalling him at the last moment. Cooper clearly needs to play in the starting side for the Dragons.
On the positive side Price did finally name NSW Cup back Peter Mata’Utia in place of Jason Nightingale on the wing. Mata’Utia played well on debut and hopefully this will be the end of Price’s experiment of naming slow second rowers in the backline.
So where do the Dragons go from here?
Well they have been going backwards quickly, with only one win from their last seven games, and have yet to record a win against the top teams. So the two points from the bye will be welcome.
They are facing up against Souths in two weeks’ time after Origin 1, so Brett Morris and Josh Dugan will be available.
If Nightingale is unavailable for the Souths match, then Charly Runciman should be promoted to centre with Mata’Utai on the wing.
Benji and Gareth Widdop are the halves, the Dragons will then have a strong defensive and attacking backline which will only improve with game experience. But what of the forwards?
Mike Cooper clearly needs to be in the run on side as either second row or prop and Tyson Frizell is wasted at prop and should play second row. Ben Creach is playing well in the second row but needs to get his forwards motivated.
Mitch Rein playing the full game at hooker is starting to look increasingly frustrated and tiring at the end of the game, which then reduces the Dragons’ defence and attacking options. Trent Merrin is not getting enough support for offloads in attack.
Some of the NSW Cup Cutters forwards deserve a chance and some of the existing forwards need the experience of learning how to tackle in the NSW Cup.
One other problem is that Steve Price has not been managing the interchange bench properly. While at this stage he has got rid of the ulitity back from the bench in favour of an extra forward, Price’s timing of interchanges is poor.
So will the Dragons beat Souths?
Well, probably not, but they can only improve on their last two games, and after Souths they play three of the lesser teams, by which time we should see what Benji can do.
Steve Price described his team’s performance against the Bulldogs as “soft” and then made few changes and now says he cannot put his “finger on the problem” with the performance against the Eels. The axe is either about to fall on the Dragons coach, or at least it is being sharpened.
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