St George Illawarra Dragons Head Coach Paul McGregor has finalised his line-up ahead of the fixture against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at the SCG on Sunday.
Dragons halfback Benji Marshall has been omitted from the fixture due to a hamstring injury with utility Josh McCrone named in the halves alongside co-captain Gareth Widdop.
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The NSW Country Origin representative will make his club-debut for the Red-and-Whites and is joined by Jack de Belin who has been named as lock-forward in a straight swap with Mike Cooper who reverts to the interchange alongside co-captain Ben Creagh, hooker Siliva Havili and second-rower Will Matthews.
“Benji had a stiff back coming into last week’s game against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and it just didn’t get any better after the game,” said Dragons Director of Performance and Medical Tony Ayoub.
“It’s since caused some referred pain into his hamstring so we’ve decided it may be a bit of a risk to have him back-up into this game after it flared again during training this week.
“He’s had round-the-clock treatment and we expect him to be ready in time for next round.”
1. Josh Dugan
2. Peter Mata’utia
3. Euan Aitken
4. Tim Lafai
5. Jason Nightingale
6. Gareth Widdop (c)
19. Josh McCrone
8. Leeson Ah Mau
9. Mitch Rein
10. Russell Packer
11. Tyson Frizell
12. Joel Thompson
15. Jack de Belin
13. Mike Cooper
14. Ben Creagh
16. Will Matthews
17. Siliva Havili
