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The St George Illawarra Dragons are under enormous pressure to maintain their spot in the top eight and face the South Sydney Rabbtiohs at the SCG during retro round. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 6pm (AEST).
The Dragons are currently locked in the battle of their life to make the top eight, and a loss to the Newcastle Knights didn’t help in the slightest.
Heading into Round 21, they sat two points clear of the ninth-placed Penrith Panthers, but the two sides are now equal on 24 points, only a better for-and-against keeping the Dragons in eighth. With the sides playing in Round 25, winning every game between now and then is imperative for their respective chances.
Paul McGregor’s men, who started the season with a bang but have been inconsistent ever since, struggling to string wins together and dropping their way down the eight.
They have moved away from what was a successful gameplan. Instead of building a strong attack through offloads from direct ball running through Paul Vaughan, Jack De Belin and Tyson Frizell, they are trying to go wide early in sets and push the extra pass.
There has been the odd bright spot in the second half of the season, but the Dragons simply haven’t played well enough. The form of Gareth Widdop is also leaving plenty to be desired.
The Rabbitohs, for the most part have been woeful this season and they are searching for the end at this point. With nothing left to play for, mounting error counts and speculation over the future on field direction of the club, it’s been nothing short of tumultuous.
South Sydney’s errors have got the better of them this year. Their attack has only fired on select occasions, like a month ago when they ran up 40 against the Panthers. Adam Reynolds’ form has been lacking, they have struggled to settle on a spine and have had no cohesion in attack.
With that being said, it’s little surprise to see the Rabbitohs in 14th on the table with just six wins for the season. With the exception of Sam Burgess and Angus Crichton, it’s hard to identify a consistently good player for the men in red and green.
Their last two losses – 26-12 to the Sharks and 32-18 to the Raiders have summed up their season in one go. What was especially concerning was a lack of running metres in both games – failing to crack 1500. The Dragons, on the other hand have run the most metres of any team this season and that could be a telling point in the possession and territory battle here.
Russell Packer is out for the Dragons replaced on the bench by Hame Sele, while David Tyrrell has been omitted with Zane Musgrove slotting into the front row.
Prediction
The Dragons simply have too much to play for. Honestly, the same could have been said last week, but they surely won’t drop two straight at this point? And Souths – you wouldn’t feed them at the moment.
Dragons by 12.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this all-important clash at the Cricket Ground from 6pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment below.