St George Illawarra
SAD NEWS: After quarreling with the head coach star player makes shocking announcement today….
The Knights had no problem dismantling the Dragons last season, winning 32-12 in round 27, even with Kalyn Ponga missing from the match for the Knights.
The head to head record is split 3-3 over the past five seasons between Newcastle and St. George
It was an extremely tight contest in New Zealand when the Knights fell 20-12 to the warriors at home last Sunday.
Not much could split the teams on the stat sheet and it was as simple as the Warriors making the most of their chances with both teams playing very solid goal line defence.
The good news for the Knights in their loss was the individual performance of Kalyn Ponga, who had his best game of the year with 2 linebreaks, 3 linebreak assists and a try assists, being involved in everything positive that the Knights attack threw at the Warriors.
Dane Gagai returns in the centres with Dylan Lucas dropping to the reserves.
The Knights halves pairings are still unsettled, this time Jackson Hastings will pair with Jack Cogger and Tyson Gamble will sit out this week.
Leo Thompson returns from suspension with Daniel Saifiti moving to the bench and Brodie Jones to the reserves.
Who would have thought the Dragons would be 2-2 with a couple of good wins under their belt after 4 rounds of the season, but kudos to Shane Flanagan and the team for getting it done against Manly last week.
It was another fast start form the Dragons that pantsed Manly, going into the break 14-6 and pushing their lead to 20-6 mid-way through the second half.
- St. George defended for long periods in their own half and stopped the progress of Manly, which has to be a positive sign for the club and is a vast improvement on last season.
Michael Molo comes onto the bench and replaces Hame Sele in the only change for the Dragons this week.
