St George Illawarra players admit the Manly-South Sydney NRL blockbuster made great viewing, but it also raised the prospect of things getting ugly for the Dragons when they play the Sea Eagles on Monday night.
“(Souths-Manly was) Two teams in form going end to end, superstars all playing to the best of their ability. Great viewing,” Dragons pivot Jamie Soward said.
“… (we’ve got to) play like we can play or it could be messy.”
It turned a little messy when the Dragons went up against another member of the much vaunted top four, the Sydney Roosters bringing St George Illawarra’s three-game winning streak to a shuddering halt.
The Roosters along with the Sea Eagles, Rabbitohs and unbeaten premiers Melbourne have seemingly distanced themselves from the rest of the premiership contenders with some dominant performances over the opening seven rounds.
The Sea Eagles-Rabbitohs was as intense a regular season fixture has been in recent years, the Bunnies prevailing 20-12.
But Manly’s performance still left an impression on the Dragons.
“Manly were fantastic,” Test winger Brett Morris said.
“If they were playing another side they probably would have won.”
The Dragons thought they had got their season back on track after a poor start only for the Roosters to put them in their place on Anzac Day.
“There’s obviously been a lot made about the top four teams at the moment,” Soward said.
“We ran into one on Thursday.
“For us it’s got to be about our performance, it wasn’t good enough on Thursday.
“We were down for the first three rounds and we came back and were 3-3.
“It was a little step back in that we didn’t play how we wanted to play.”
Meanwhile, St George Illawarra’s trickle of signings turned into a flood on Wednesday with skipper Ben Creagh signing a new two-year deal with an option for a third season.
It will tie the 28-year-old to the Dragons until at least the end of the 2015 season.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be given another contract which I’m really happy about,” Creagh said.
“I’m a local junior having played for the club all my life and I want to finish my career here.
“I am really proud to be the captain of this famous club. I love everything associated with it and didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
His signing comes a day after the Dragons confirmed English prop Mike Cooper would be heading down under, while Melbourne’s Gareth Widdop and Canberra’s Joel Thompson will also be on the Dragons’ books from 2014.
