Dragons expect Origin III stars to back up

St George Illawarra are set to back up all five of their State of Origin players against the Wests Tigers on Sunday at Kogarah.

Ben Hunt, Tariq Sims, Paul Vaughan Jack de Belin and Tyson Frizell all fronted for Dragons training on Saturday after recovery on Friday.

A decision on their availability will be made closer to kick-off, but coach Paul McGregor’s initial plans include allowing all five of his stars to play as they begin their run into the finals.

“They’re all OK. The feedback from the performance staff is that they are all fit to play,” McGregor said.

“The players say they’re mentally well to play. So at this stage all five players will take the field.

“They’re bouncing actually, it’s good to see.”

Saturday’s session was just the fifth time in the past month the full Dragons group has been together, after a taxing representative period.

As well as their Origin stars, Gareth Widdop, James Graham and Leeson Ah Mau each played in the Denver Test last month while Tim Lafai and Luciano Leilua also spent time in camp for the Pacific Tests.

And while McGregor conceded it may also make the next few weeks more challenging, he was confident it would be worth the pain in the long run for his second-placed team..

“I’m happy for the guys to be selected at this time of their careers. To play this kind of footy will be a benefit to this team,” McGregor said.

“When you know you can perform on the biggest stage in rugby league you get a lot of belief and confidence out of that. And I feel that all my guys performed well.

“Coming back into our playing group that’s just going to help in the final third of the year.”

Meanwhile Tigers coach Ivan Cleary expected his team to return to the kind of football they had success with over the opening two months of the competition.

The Tigers played 15 weeks straight before the representative round and bye in the past month, a taxing run considering the bulk of their early-season games were won on defence and in the 80th minute.

Firmly positioned in the top four after six rounds, the Tigers have won just two of their past 10 and a loss on Sunday would likely end their already extremely faint finals hopes.

“With the style of football we were playing, I think it does (take it out of them),” Cleary said.

“But I certainly can’t see any reason why we can’t be refreshed this week.

“The attitude I’ve seen on the training field this week certainly suggests they will be.”

STATS THAT MATTER:

* The Dragons are trying to avoid their first back-to-back losses this year.

* The Tigers miss the most tackles per game, while the Dragons bust through the most.

* This is the Dragons’ 500th NRL match as a merged club.

Advertisements