Dragons lament conceding 46 second-half points in two weeks
Author
Dan Walsh NRL.com Reporter
Timestamp
Sat 11 May 2019, 09:02 PM
The sight of his Dragons players "looking at each other to do the job" is a harrowingly familiar one for Paul McGregor as St George Illawarra coughed up 46 second half points in consecutive fade-outs.
The Dragons slumped to their
third loss on the trot after leading the Warriors 18-6 at Suncorp Stadium, their Magic Round venture north of the border ending in a disappearing act after the break.
The Warriors' 20 straight points after half-time follows on Parramatta's 32-18 come-from-behind win over McGregor's side a week earlier.
The loss leaves the Dragons sitting in 10th place, with the body language of players after conceding late points over the past fortnight of particular concern for McGregor.
"In the second half we stopped working in defence," he said after the 26-18 loss.
"We didn't stay connected when the ball went away from us, all the things we did well in the first 40 minutes we didn't continue to do.
"…We lost a bit of belief and started looking at each other to do the job instead of getting the job done as individual themselves.
"It [blowing two first-half leads] is concerning. You need to be a consistent side for 80 minutes in this competition."
With Corey Norman (fractured cheekbone) out for at least another two weeks, Gareth Widdop (shoulder) sidelined long term and Jack de Belin suspended under the NRL's no fault stand down policy, the Dragons are missing serious experience when being mowed down by opposition sides.
St George Illawarra can expect to be without Ben Hunt, Paul Vaughan, Tyson Frizell and Tariq Sims when the Origin period rolls around in a month's time as well, hastening McGregor's search for answers to their worrying second-half fade-outs.
"We showed last week how dominant we were for 40 and tonight how dominant we were," McGregor said.
"But it's not good enough. You have to be clear on what it takes to get the job done.
"At the moment we have a few people – players and us as coaches – we have to look at it as to why it's happening and address it, quickly."
Hunt had a horror finish to an otherwise strong performance, his knock-on of a 69th-minute dropout leading to the Warriors try that put them ahead for the first time in the match.
McGregor didn't dance around the impact of the mistake, reminiscent of Hunt's spilled kick-off in Brisbane's 2015 grand final loss to the Cowboys.
"The score was 18-all, 12 minutes to go, we had an attacking set on their line," McGregor said.
"It was a pretty important catch. Obviously [Hunt] holds on to things.
"He cares a lot."
https://www.dragons.com.au/news/201...conceding-46-second-half-points-in-two-weeks/
