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St George Illawarra Dragons' Dylan Farrell braced for battle with South Sydney Rabbitohs' Greg Inglis
Date May 9, 2015 - 2:25PM
Daniel Lane
Sports reporter & Video journalist
St George Illawarra centre Dylan Farrell said he had been channelling the memory of his second match in first grade to help prepare for Monday night's match against his old club South Sydney and, more poignantly, defending against the destructive, Greg Inglis.
Five years ago and one week after he enjoyed a remarkable NRL debut with a hat-trick of tries for Souths against the Wests Tigers, Farrell found himself in the nightmarish scenario of defending against Inglis who was then playing with the Melbourne Storm.
"It's my [24th] birthday on Friday and I don't know if this is an early present," he joked about facing up to Inglis again. "Playing Inglis is a pet hate, it's not the best.
"He's so big and strong and fast ? you have to work well [as a team] to stop him. He's too hard to tackle one-on-one, you've got to do it with your edge, with a few boys around you. It's never fun.
"When he was at Melbourne I played against him in my second game for Souths and he was my favourite player so I was looking forward to it but I was nervous. I thought I went all right but I played purely on adrenaline.
"Every time he got the ball I was up on him quickly. I went low because there was no way I was going near his fend. Then, when he signed with Souths I was very pleased to think I'd never have to defend against 'GI' again but, here I am and defending against him again."
Farrell is in his second season with the Dragons but making up for lost time after last year was written off when he tore his left pectoral muscle in round six and then his right one when he returned to action in the NSW Cup.
The defending premiers have lost their last three games to North Queensland, Cronulla and Canberra and Farrell said he could easily imagine how their coach Michael Maguire would be preparing them for Monday night's game at ANZ Stadium.
"Their main focus will be on getting back to what they do best, it'll be a very big game," he said. "They're going to want to go up the middle, they also have classy backs and they're strong all over the park. They stand up pretty well and they'll try and expose us from all over the park.
"We have to be 'on' when we play them, but it's exciting. I like playing against them, they've been the benchmark over the last couple of years and I still have a few mates there. It's always good to play against your old mates and always good to play against the benchmark to challenge yourself."
However, Farrell said Souths would be meeting a top-of-the-table St George Illawarra who, under coach Paul McGregor, had fostered a key ingredient for success.
"The best things about the Dragons is our balance in the playing group, we're genuinely good mates," he said. "I think that's half the battle ? playing for one another."
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...ey-rabbitohs-greg-inglis-20150509-ggxtpf.html
f**ken awesome if true! i think they'll be pumped for this game!
