Approaching the toughest set of back-to-back matches the NRL can dish up, it’s clear St George Illawarra are taking the glass half full approach.
“We haven’t really been looking at the ladder,” hooker Mitch Rein offered ahead of Saturday night’s match-up with the high-flying Sydney Roosters at WIN Jubilee Stadium.
“We’re only two good wins outside the top eight anyway.”
A quick scan of the NRL ladder reveals Rein does in fact have his sums correct, but it is also true that the Dragons lie just one spot and two competition points above last-placed Parramatta.
It’s why the Dragons need to start stringing some wins together, not necessarily to mount a late charge at the NRL finals, but to ensure they avoid the joint-venture’s first ever wooden spoon.
The struggling outfit have won just five of 15 games in 2013, including just one of their last four, and as they go in search of “two good wins” they face the second-placed Roosters and ladder leaders South Sydney in their next two matches.
An attack which is amongst the worst in the league is set to be tested by a Roosters defence that ranks second in the NRL, particularly with the Dragons sole shinning light – fullback Josh Dugan – suspended for the game.
But Rein believes the Dragons may have a few tricks up their sleeve.
“We’ve been doing a lot of extra (work) the last two weeks,” Rein said of his side’s attack.
“When we go out there we’ve got a few things we’ve been working on the last two weeks and if they come into place (could) really challenge the Roosters defence.”
Whatever the disparity between the two sides on the ladder, the Roosters are refusing to take the Dragons lightly amid talk they could run up a big score.
“When you go into a game thinking (about an easy win) that’s when you can often get sat on your backside,” veteran Roosters prop Luke O’Donnell said.
“A win by two points or one point will do us.”