Saturday third NRL Round 23 match is between St George Illawarra Dragons and Cronulla Sharks with the opening kick to commence at 7:30PM local time. The game is to be played at WIN Stadium which see’s home team Cronulla Sharks hold favouritism in the market. View our NRL live scores, odds and results for the game between St George Illawarra Dragons and Cronulla Sharks.

WHERE AND WHEN: WIN Stadium, Saturday, 17/08, 7:30PM

Opening odds comparison:

St George Illawarra Dragons	3.65	4.00	4.00	4.00	3.65	3.65
Cronulla Sharks	1.28	1.25	1.26	1.25	1.28	1.29

Preview:

St George Illawarra take on Cronulla on Saturday night, 7.30 at WIN Stadium. The Sharks will go into this as favourites, currently sitting in sixth place but with a number of teams breathing down their neck. In contrast, the Dragons don’t really have much to play for in 14th position and have lost both Trent Merrin and Josh Dugan to injuries since last week. The Dragons will be fighting for pride alone, which probably wont be enough to overcome a hungry Sharks outfit.

Teams:

St George Illawarra Dragons:
Jason Nightingale, Brett Morris, Chase Stanley, Daniel Vidot, Charly Runciman, Adam Quinlan, Nathan Fien, Jack Stockwell, Mitch Rein, Ben Creagh, Tyson Frizell, Leeson Ah Mau, Jack de Belin. Interchange: Matt Prior, Michael Weyman, Will Matthews, Josh Drinkwater

Cronulla Sharks:
Michael Gordon, Sosaia Feki, Ben Pomeroy, Jonathan Wright, Beau Ryan, Todd Carney, Jeff Robson, Andrew Fifita, John Morris, Bryce Gibbs, Luke Lewis, Jayson Bukuya, Paul Gallen. Interchange Isaac De Gois, Chris Heighington, Sam Tagataese, Anthony Tupou, Ben Ross

Sharks wary of Dragons backs

Finals-chasing Cronulla are wary of St George Illawarra’s back three, despite the Dragons losing fullback Josh Dugan for Saturday’s NRL clash in Wollongong.

The Sharks enter this weekend’s round in sixth, behind the Bulldogs on for and against and five points off the teams in third and fourth.

Only two points separate them from the ninth-placed Raiders.

“What Gal’s (captain Paul Gallen) been telling us is we’re not secure in the eight at the moment,” Sharks’ forward Andrew Fifita said.

“Maybe if we win this one on the weekend we’ll be secure in the eight,but our goal was we wanted to get into the top four and I still belive that we can get there.

“It depends on how Manly and Melbourne go. With a few losses for them, anything could happen.”

The 14th-placed Dragons are missing two of their strike players in NSW Origin representatives Dugan (thumb) and Trent Merrin,(knee), but the Sharks remain wary of a team that defeated them at Cronulla earlier this season.

The Dragons will have Jason Nightingale at fullback and Brett Morris on the wing, with boom youngster and NSW Origin under-20 star Charly Runciman shifting from centre to wing.

“Their biggest danger is their back three,” Fifita said.

“They are strong quality rep players. At the end of the day if we wrap them up, I reckon we’ll be fine.”

While the Dragons grapple with injury issues, Cronulla welcome back forward Anthony Tupou and winger Beau Ryan.

Wollongong product Ryan said the Dragons would obviously miss Dugan and Merrin, but had some good youngsters in addition to their dangerous outside backs.

“(Five-eighth Adam) Quinlan has been fantastic for them. I think Runciman is a player of the future,” Ryan said.

“Jason Nightingale and Brett Morris are two of the best outside backs in the game, so it’s still going to be a tough game.

“I’m sure they are going to be fired up, playing for pride, and a lot of guys in their side are playing for contracts.”

Morris expressed confidence in the Dragons’ youngsters to get the job done.

“We’re very fortunate at this club, we’ve got a lot of young players that are playing some good footy,” Morris said.

“It’s great for them to get their opportunity to come back into the side.

“They are always tough games against the Sharks. We’ve always had tough encounters and they always are pretty pumped up to play us, as we are with them.

“We always lift when we play the Sharkies, especially when we play at home.”