St George Illawarra five-eighth Jamie Soward believes the return of veteran duo Ben Hornby and Dean Young will have the Dragons primed to finish their NRL pre-season on a positive note.

The Dragons go into Saturday night’s Charity Shield clash against South Sydney with their strongest squad of the pre-season, with Young and skipper Hornby having missed both trial losses to Canterbury and North Queensland due to injury.

The return of Hornby in particular should add some stability to the Dragons attack, with Soward claiming significance of the occasion would also bring out the best in his side.

“People forget that Charity Shield, there’s such tradition there, both clubs want to get out and get their season rolling with a Charity Shield win,” Soward said after the club’s final training run in Wollongong on Friday.

“The first week going into Perth (against the Cowboys) we were probably a bit rusty – we started our game like that.

“It’s good to have the skipper back and Dean Young, just to bring the old heads in.”

While the majority of the backline is in place for the season-opening clash against Newcastle, there are still several question marks over the make-up of the pack.

NSW State of Origin representative Beau Scott, who is being rested on Saturday, still has to come back into the side, while recruit Jeremy Latimore has won a surprise starting berth ahead of Blues prop Trent Merrin as replacement for the injured Dan Hunt.