St George Dragons vs. Newcastle Knights

The first of today’s NRL Round 5 matches is between St George Illawarra Dragons and Newcastle Knights. The game is set to commence at 3pm local time with the game to be played at Jubilee Oval. The away team Newcastle Knights are the current favourites in the market. View our game preview and teams for the match between St George Illawarra Dragons and Newcastle Knights.

The home side will have to work hard for field position this week – given Newcastle concede the fewest metres across the NRL (just 1153 metres) and the Dragons yield the most ground every week (1468 metres).

Compounding the above, Newcastle rank fourth for inroads with 1413 metres each week. In particular watch for their big boppers Adam Cuthbertson (average 134 metres and nine tackle-breaks), David Fa’alogo (130 metres) and Kade Snowden (129 metres) to lay a platform before Akuila Uate and Darius Boyd (coincidentally each averaging 127 metres from 14 runs a game) cut loose out wide and at the back.

Cuthbertson will be keen to continue his good form and impress against the team he won a premiership with in 2010; the interchange forward scored two tries and made two line-breaks plus 105 metres in 31 minutes last week.

Trent Merrin and Nathan Fien have formed a shark-and-suckerfish relationship over the opening weeks of the season – with Fien scoring tries in successive weeks after feeding off the good groundwork of his big lock forward.

Against the Raiders in Round 3 Merrin charged hard from close range before popping an offload for Fien to score – a scenario that was repeated last week against Cronulla. The Knights need to be mindful whenever Merrin gets the ball in centre-field in their red zone – and particularly if he’s received the ball from Fien, as it’s likely the No.7 will run around his No.13 looking for a belated pass.

Jarrod Mullen needs to make sure he kicks deep and away from the Dragons’ back three – Gerard Beale and Brett Morris rank fourth and fifth for kick-return metres, with 242 and 223 respectively. Last outing against the Knights Morris contributed 204 metres plus seven tackle busts.

The Knights need to be ready to defuse Jamie Soward’s cross-field attacking kicks and grubbers – Jason Nightingale scored from a kick against the Sharks and could easily have had a second had he grasped a 50:50 chance midway through the first half.

Teams:

St George Illawarra Dragons:
Gerard Beale, Brett Morris, Chase Stanley, Matt Cooper, Jason Nightingale, Jamie Soward, Nathan Fien, Dan Hunt, Mitch Rein, Jack Stockwell, Tyson Frizell, Ben Creagh (c), Trent Merrin
Interchange: Bronson Harrison, Matt Prior, Leeson Ah Mau, Daniel Vidot, Jack de Belin, Michael Henderson (two to be omitted).
Newcastle Knights:
Darius Boyd, James McManus, Anthony Quinn, Alex McKinnon, Akuila Uate, Jarrod Mullen, Tyrone Roberts, Kade Snowden, Kurt Gidley (c), Willie Mason, Robbie Rochow, Chris Houston, Jeremy Smith
Interchange: Danny Buderus, Neville Costigan, Adam Cuthbertson, David Fa’alogo, Tahu (one to be omitted).