St George-Illawarra continue their Queensland tour when they travel to Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night to take on competition leaders Brisbane Broncos in the opening NRL round six match.
LAST TIME OUT
Brisbane Broncos backed up from a golden point victory against North Queensland Cowboys with a comfortable 24-16 win over Gold Coast Titans at CBUS Super Stadium last Friday. Playing against his former club for the first time, James Roberts opened the scoring and was influential on the Broncos holding a 10-4 lead at the break. Injury hampered his second half performance but has been selected this week. Brisbane won’t be happy they let the Titans back into the game. Wayne Bennett will be keen for his side to tighten up the defence. That might just happen this week.
After escaping with a late-win over Penrith Panthers in round four, St George-Illawarra were hammered by defending premiers North Queensland Cowboys 36-0 at 1300 Smiles Stadium last Saturday night. The main talking point out of the match was the inept performance of Benji Marshall. His night was heavily criticised by legends Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns. Marshall acknowledging that his game was off. It has rugby league critics pondering whether this is the end of Marshall who is off contract at the Dragons at season’s end. The issue for the Dragons is yet again, where will their points come from? They’ve only scored forty points in the first five rounds.
KEY BATTLES
Australian Kangaroo hopefuls Josh Dugan and Darius Boyd face off at fullback. Dugan has made on appearance for Australia in the ANZAC Test match last year in Brisbane. A game Boyd missed but is widely expected to hold out Dugan and newly adopted Australian Semi Radradra for the test match to be held in Newcastle next month. The Dragons fullback will need a monumental game to be any chance of representing his country on May 6.
At five-eighth, Anthony Milford and Gareth Widdop are polar opposites. Milford is exciting and dashing. His first half against the Panthers a couple of the weeks back was brilliant where he set up and scored a couple of tries. Widdop is the tactician, calculated and strategic. Unfortunately not as productive in a team not scoring points. His kicking game will be pivotal to making life difficult for the Broncos.
Plenty of heavy men up front with Josh Maguire and Adam Blair to take on Russell Packer and Leeson Ah Mau. Expect early fireworks with some big hits early before the game settles down.
PREDICTION
While the Dragons will play with enthusiasm during the opening stages of the game, Brisbane will eventually ware them down. Expect Ben Hunt and James Roberts to star. Not enough points in the Dragons to get close in this one.
Broncos by 18.
LINEUP
Broncos: 1 Darius Boyd 2 Corey Oates 3 Jack Reed 4 James Roberts 5 Jordan Kahu 6 Anthony Milford 7 Ben Hunt 8 Josh McGuire 9 Andrew McCullough 10 Adam Blair 11 Alex Glenn 12 Matthew Gillett 13 Corey Parker Interchange: 14 Jarrod Wallace 15 Sam Thaiday 16 Joseph Ofahengau 17 Kodi Nikorima
Dragons: 1 Josh Dugan, 2 Peter Mata’utia, 3 Euan Aitken, 4 Timoteo Lafai, 5 Jason Nightingale, 6 Gareth Widdop, 7 Benji Marshall, 8 Leeson Ah Mau, 9 Mitch Rein, 10 Russell Packer, 11 Tyson Frizell, 12 Joel Thompson, 13 Lock Jack De Belin.Interchange: 14 Michael Cooper, 15 Will Matthews, 16 Siliva Havili, 17 Jacob Marketo
