St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor believes the Dragons 18-12 defeat of Warrington in the opening World Club Series match at Halliwell Jones Stadium has given his team the perfect platform for the upcoming NRL season.
The Dragons ground their way to a controversial win in a bruising encounter before a hostile 13,080 crowd that ensured the credibility of the tournament.
They had to do so without strike secondrower Tyson Frizzel for much of the match after he was forced from the field with concussion in the first half, while Wolves fans constantly booed the team after a spectacular high tackle by winger Eto Nabuli that most believed would have been a send off in the Super League.
McGregor defended Nabuli afterwards and was pleased with the performance of the rookie Fiji winger and prop Rory O'Brien, who is yet to play an NRL match.
"Rory got through some minutes and Etu, at the back, had some pressure put on him and he handled it really well so they both got a tick tonight," McGregor said. "They obviously have to grow but the more games they play and the more time they play in conditions like that they are going to be better players. For two young guys, I thought they did well.
"I thought the physicality of the game was good for everyone to see, the crowd enjoyed it and certainly at half-time the boys needed that 10 minute spell.
"We lost our backrower in the first-half so we had to use an interchange and he didn't come back on so that last 15 minutes we didn't have [interchanges] left and they found something so that was good.
"Our whole nine days here has been good, the intensity the boys trained at, the energy they found in sometimes trying conditions was good and the result went our way. I got a look at a few guys who hadn't played first grade before so that is good ahead of round one."
Halfback Benji Marshall continued his good pre-season form and laid on the first and last tries, while his kicking game was particularly good in the second half.
Five-eighth Gareth Widdop also engineered the second try with a deftly placed grubber kick for Joel Thompson to score.
"My main goal was just to try and control the game and control the kicking game and I thought I did it pretty well," Marshall said.
"With Gareth there it is pretty easy because I just take over and if there is a bit of pressure you can throw back to him. It is easier when you have another kicker to throw back to."
The refereeing of Englishman Ben Thaler was an advert for the dual refereeing system used in the NRL and he struggled to police the 10 metres consistently but the Wolves camp conceded their opponents had adapted better.
Marshall got the Dragons off to the perfect start when he put Frizzell over in the second minute with a pass likely to feature on highlights reels for some time this season after Warrington prop Ashton Sims dropped the ball near his own line.
Warrington five-eighth Gareth O'Brien levelled the scores in the 13th minute after beating Marshall with a dummy 30 metres out from his own line and then repeating the feat to speed past NSW Origin fullback Josh Dugan, who was man of the match.
Thompson put the Dragons back in the 19th minute but Nabuli's 30th minute high shot on Kevin Penny proved crucial as Wolves centre Ryan Atkins pirouetted out of a tackle to plant the ball over the tryline after the ensuing penalty.
A high shot by Marshall on O'Brien enabled the Warrington five-eighth to level the scores at 12-all in the 58th minute after failing to convert the try of Atkins, but Dugan silenced the crowd when he snatched the ball from Wolves fullback Gary Wheeler in the Warrington in-goal after he had awkwardly fielded a Marshall banana kick.
"It was good to come over here, all the boys played really well, we completed our sets and it was a good night for us," Dugan said.
"To come over here and beat Warrington at Warrington is very pleasing. I think there was only about 15,000 but it felt like the Origin capacity of 50,000 so it was a great atmosphere and a great game."
