Dragons get pass mark in first game under Flanagan

“The first half, we’ll give a tick. The second half, we’ll give it a cross”.

That’s what new St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan told his players as he assessed their first performance under his charge against South Sydney.

The Dragons lost the annual Charity Shield clash 28-6 but the scores were locked at 6-6 when Flanagan replaced most of his stars at halftime.

“I thought that the first half was a really good competitive game - we had our team on and then in the second half, it just probably shows where we are with our young kids,” Flanagan said.

“They are not up to it just as yet and they just got run over in the second half. But when we had our best team on in the first half, I think it was a good hit out.

“There were some big blocks of defence and both sides scored tries off errors from the opposition.”

The Rabbitohs opening try came after Dragons fullback Tyrell Sloan spilled the ball in a driving tackle by Lachlan Ilias near his own line and Jacob Host picked up to score.

Flanagan believes Sloan should have scored himself at the opposite end and he created another try scoring opportunity after breaking the Rabbitohs defensive line but the Dragons failed to capitalise.

“Offensively, we could be a bit sharper, and we should have nailed a few tries,” Flanagan said. “Sloanie should have picked the ball up, and walked over the try line.

“He made another break and didn't find the right pass - he had two people inside him - so we left a couple of tries out there in the first half.

“We should have scored two or three tries, so if we tidy that up and, to be fair, Souths didn't run the ball over the try line, we dropped it and they picked it up … unfortunately that was a soft moment.”

Flanagan didn’t get the opportunity to try switching Sloan and Zac Lomax between fullback and wing as planned due to the latter suffering back spasms, which limited his involvement in the game.

However, he expects Lomax to be available for next weekend’s second Pre-season Challenge match against Wests Tigers and said new recruit Raymond Faitala-Mariner would also play.