The coach might have changed but the mantra hasn’t – attack will continue to take a back seat to defence at St George Illawarra.

Preaching the line that had become the calling card of former coach Wayne Bennett’s time at the NRL club, skipper Ben Hornby said the Dragons’ success would continue to be determined by their deeds without the ball.

New coach Steve Price would have been pleased then with what he saw against South Sydney on Saturday night, with the Dragons doing a sound job of protecting their line save for a few bullocking raids from backrower Sam Burgess.

With the Dragons taking on their former mentor when they face Newcastle in round one, Hornby knows it’s vital his side get their defensive game right.

“We showed some good signs out there,” Hornby said of the 18-12 Charity Shield win.

“Our defence was still solid throughout the whole match.

“Our attack will come – we’ve got to get our defence right first.”

There were a few subtle changes to the Dragons’ defensive make-up, with halves Jamie Soward and Ben Hornby swapping sides to pit the diminutive Soward up against the imposing Burgess.

While Burgess caused plenty of worries, it was veteran Matt Cooper – considered one of the game’s better defensive centres – who accepted most of the blame.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do for the first round,” Cooper said.

“We were pretty good out there in defence apart from a couple of missed tackles by myself on Sam, but that’s easily fixed. It wasn’t a team problem – it was just a problem for myself.

“They had some ball on our line and it tested us.

“I thought Jamie defended really well out there on the left with us.”

While centre Chase Stanley is expected to be available for selection against the Knights after being concussed in a high shot from Rabbitohs backrower Eddy Pettybourne, his brief 10-minute stay on the field has provided a headache for Price.

Stanley was earmarked to replace the retired Mark Gasnier at right centre this season, but has been limited to just 10 minutes of action this pre-season.

His less-than-ideal preparation could lead to Price shifting Beau Scott from the backrow to the centres for round one.

“We were planning on giving him (Stanley) a good 80-minute block but it wasn’t to be,” Price said.

“We’ll just have to re-evaluate (the centre selection) throughout the week.”