Dragons v Bulldogs preview
Source: NRL
Just as it is for several other teams this week, it’s time for the Dragons to lay it all on the line or see their premiership aspirations ground into the WIN Stadium dirt.
Outstanding Test star Mark Gasnier returned to spark their third win from their past four games against the Panthers last week and if it wasn’t for a demoralising 44-16 defeat at the hands of the Warriors a fortnight ago you’d say the red-and-whites were building to something.
That may still be the case but it all hinges on this game.
They get a break even before kick-off – the Bulldogs’ upfront enforcers Willie Mason and Mark O’Meley remain on the injured list, as does Matt Utai.
But a lack of top troops didn’t stop the Belmore boys from mowing down the Titans 36-12 last week.
Prior to that they were hijacked by the erratic Panthers, their only defeat in a five-game stretch.
The Bulldogs sit in seventh place on 20 points with a good points differential (44) while the Dragons are clawing their way up from the premiership depths – they’re 14th on 16 points with a poor points differential (-46); it’s pretty much wins for the next couple of weeks (at least) for the Dragons, or it’s curtains for 2007.
Watch out Dragons: Believe it or not Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes might actually be happy his team has to bus it to Wollongong this week.
While you’d expect top-eight contenders to win more than their fair share of games at home and hold their own when playing away, the Bulldogs are the anomaly in this year’s competition in that regard – they’ve won just three of six home games but remarkably have won six of their nine away games – that’s 66 per cent.
Factor in the fact the Bulldogs are undefeated at WIN Stadium against the joint venture, and have won every game in Wollongong since 1992 (seven in total) and it makes for quite a leisurely drive.
Watch out Bulldogs: The lift in enthusiasm among the Dragons stood out like a beacon last week and it was all due to one player – Mark Gasnier.
Boy have the red-and-whites missed him – he may have professed to have played some “rusty” football but just wait until he gets out the WD-40!
Last week in his new role at five-eighth he kept the opposition guessing with 17 runs for 165 metres, made five trademark offloads, two line breaks and a wonderful try assist to winger Jason Nightingale in the dying stages after a perfect dummy and step.
Shut down Gasnier and the Dragons’ heads will drop.
Where it will be won: We get the feeling this could be a big scoreline – whether or not it’s close or one-way traffic it’s likely plenty of points will be scored.
After a woeful opening 15 weeks the Dragons have shown good attacking prowess recently – in the past month they’ve scored 25 of their total 57 tries, including seven last week.
Over the same period the Bulldogs have increased their scoring average by a point to 22.8 points a game.
They are strong around the park, particularly on the right edges and sideline where they have registered 30 tries – equal with the Broncos as the most by any team in the NRL.
This is where Sonny Bill Williams is most lethal; when he’s able to get his right arm free (and sometimes when it appears he isn’t able to), he’ll pop out an offload to a support player, mostly within the 20-metre zone, which more often than not results in a four-pointer.
Unfortunately for the Dragons their left-side defence isn’t crash hot – they’ve leaked 31 tries down that side (fourth most in the comp) so Nathan Brown has his work cut out drilling the young outside backs to get them to improve.
The History: Played 14; Dragons 4, Bulldogs 10. The Bulldogs have won seven of the past eight clashes, including the past five. It gets worse for the Dragons – their opponents have won all three games played at WIN Stadium.
So much for home ground advantage.
Conclusion: It really boils down to how much the Dragons want to be around come September.
With captain Ben Hornby and new boy Jamie Soward calling the shots they have really sprung to life recently and their once pop-gun attack is now expansive and exciting.
In their past four games they’ve added 27 line breaks to now total 69, with 84 offloads during the period now seeing them total 198.
They’ve also busted a whopping 161 tackles to now tally 601.
That’s quite a turn-around. Importantly, despite the razzle dazzle, they haven’t seen any increase in their error rate, maintaining it at 12.5 per game.
Discipline remains a concern though – they’ve conceded 123 penalties in defence, which ranks them third worst in the NRL.
That said, the Bulldogs’ 124 penalties ranks them second, so it could boil down to who’s on their best behaviour on the night.
![[FKN-SIK]](/data/avatars/m/13/13251.jpg?1239671989){kind=avatar}
