St George Illawarra are expecting captain Ben Hornby and Dean Young to return for Saturday’s Charity Shield clash with South Sydney at ANZ Stadium.
The Dragons went down 18-12 to North Queensland in their opening trial match in Perth, with recruit Atelea Vea hurting his knee and Dan Hunt damaging ribs.
However, despite the minor setbacks, new Dragons coach Steve Price says he was happy with the hit-out and was looking forward to the return of two of his big-name stars for the annual pre-season clash with the Rabbitohs.
“What we are trying to achieve is definitely going to work, it’s just going to take time. We created enough opportunities there to score enough tries, but it just wasn’t to be,” Price said.
“Our main focus was just on putting in a good performance and I thought for 60 minutes of the game there were some really positive signs there. We’ll get back to Sydney to reassess and get ready for the Charity Shield next week.
“Hopefully just from a medical point of view we will reassess Ben Hornby during the week with his thigh strain and Dean Young, so we will hopefully get a couple of guys back next week.”
North Queensland coach Neil Henry was also happy with what his team took from the trial at nib Stadium on Saturday night.
The Cowboys came away with the win thanks to a scintillating opening 20 minutes where they piled on four tries and all 18 points, before the match turned into an arm-wrestle.
Ashley Graham, Kane Linnett, Antonio Winterstein and Gavin Cooper all ran in tries for the Cowboys in the explosive start.
Henry’s men might not have scored after that, but he’ll take plenty into next week’s trial with the Gold Coast in Mackay, where Johnathan Thurston and Matthew Bowen will come in.
“I was really happy with Michael Morgan and Ray Thompson in the halves. We didn’t expect Michael to play that many minutes, but with James Segeyaro getting injured we had to move Aaron (Payne) around to the halves,” Henry said.
“I was very happy with James Tamou’s game up front and the front row did a good job. It’s the first hit-out and the boys were itching for a game after training for a long time and we will take a fair bit out of that moving forward to next week’s game.
“Johnathan and Matty will be back next week and they will certainly add to the team, but I think it’s good that Mosese Pangai, Wayne Ulugia and guys like that got a hit out for us (in the backs).
“There’s a bit of competition on with Kalifa (Faifai Loa), Kane (Linnett), Antonio (Winterstein), Ash Graham and Mosese on the edges.
“It’s an indication at this stage that our depth is good and it should be at the start of the season too. Overall we are very happy with the squad.”
