St George Illawarra Dragons Head Coach Paul McGregor has named a 21-man squad for Saturday’s trial match against the New Zealand Warriors at Trafalgar Park in Nelson, NZ.
The game will be the last opportunity for most of the squad to press for selection ahead of Round 1 with McGregor making a number of personnel and positional changes from last week’s Charity Shield against South Sydney.
“We are gong to try players in different positions and I am looking for guys to really take their opportunity,” said McGregor. “It is a good situation in that we have everyone vying for that top 17 come round one and I am looking for a big improvement from the Charity Shield.
“We have been training now for 15 weeks, nothing changes it is just a real good opportunity to get some cohesion going into the first week of the competition”.
Click Here To Watch Go Pro Vision From Training In Nelson
New recruit Kurt Mann has been named to start at fullback with Josh Dugan named at centre. Joining Dugan in the centers is Tim Lafai with Euan Aitken and Peter Mata’utai named to start on the wings.
In the forwards, English international Mike Cooper has been named to start at lock with locals Leeson Ah Mau and Russell Packer named to start in the front row against their former Club.
“We have been away for a week and it has been a good preparation leading into it, when you are away you get time to work on little things and bring the group closer and it has been a really good time for that,” added McGregor.
Click Here To Watch What The Boys Got Up To Yesterday
“We have players who are new to the Club and we are learning some different traits and it is a good opportunity for us to put it onto the football field against a very quality opposition.
“The Warriors have recruited very well and our guys are really looking forward to having a good hit-out before the competition starts”.
Dragons v Warriors
Trafalgar Park, Nelson, NZ
Kick-Off 5pm Local Time (3pm AEDST)
19. Kurt Mann
2. Peter Mata’utia
4. Tim Lafai
1. Josh Dugan
3. Euan Aitken
6. Gareth Widdop ©
7. Benji Marshall
8. Leeson Ah Mau
9. Mitch Rein
10. Russell Packer
11. Will Matthews
12. Joel Thompson
15. Mike Cooper
Interchange
13. Jack de Belin
14. Ben Creagh
16. Jake Marketo
17. Siliva Havili
20. Taane Milne
22. Tyrone McCarthy
23. Josh McCrone
24. Dunamis Lui
Click Here To View The Player Profiles
Please note that the Dragons and Warriors had been working together to make a live stream of this game possible via our websites, but unfortunately due to a number of technical and infrastructure issues in Nelson this will not be possible.
Dragons Members and fans wishing to follow the action live can do so by following us on Twitter and we will look to post highlights of the match on www.dragons.com.au
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