It's no surprise the St George Illawarra Dragons will be on a mission to rectify themselves against the Newcastle Knights at Glen Willow on May 19 with a trio of sloppy performances over the past three rounds.
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Red and white second rower, Jacob Host says although coming off the back of a 26-18 loss against the New Zealand Warriors, his side is heading into Sunday's match confident.
"Everyone's got a lot of confidence. We've shown signs across the last couple of weeks that we're a very capable football team, we just need to put two halves together," Hosty said.
Everyone's ready to go and to rectify the results that we've had previously and get a win on the board.
- Jacob Host
In a bid to ensure they rid of the slump, Host says there's a lot of focus during training placed on bringing back their strength - defence.
"We've sort of gone away from putting pressure on the other team in our defence and that's let us down in the halves we haven't performed," the 22-year-old said.
"There's a big focus this week at training on bringing pressure through our defence.
When our defence is working, our attack is going well, and as long as we're sticking to what we've been working on, we'll definitely go a long way.
Last time the Dragons did battle with the Newcastle Knights was in round four of the 2019 season when the red v took a one point win, 13-12.
Host is eager to claim a more "comfortable" win not only for the sake of the team, but for the fans as well.
"It's better on the heart strings if we get a bigger win than one point," Host said.
"We've had a couple of those this year where it's been really tight, I guess our fans don't like it too much because they would like to see a big win.
"We definitely will be going out to get as much of a comfortable win as possible."
After experiencing the atmosphere from this year's Charity Shield clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Host expectations for the crowd are set high.
Last year, 8,962 people turned out for the NRL round 11 clash between the Dragons and Canberra Raiders.
"Last time we were here it was an unreal crowd, even just for a trial match, there were people everywhere, the stadium was fantastic and the grounds are always in great condition so we're excited to get out there," he said.
The town of Mudgee is very much a rugby league place and we're excited to get there, we get a lot of love from the people.
"Everyone sort of agrees a lot of football players come from country towns these days and it's good to get back to the country side of things and take it to areas where it might be a bit more difficult to get to games in the city because of the distance to travel."
Gates will open at 11.30am ahead of the NRL Touch Premiership that will kick off at 12pm, while the Dragons will take on the Newcastle Knights at 2pm, Glen Willow Stadium on May 19.
Read more | Heading to the NRL clash on May 19? Read this
Jay-Anna Sleeman
Reporter for the Western Advocate. First began as a sports journalist with ACM in 2018 before moving on to cover news and court.
Reporter for the Western Advocate. First began as a sports journalist with ACM in 2018 before moving on to cover news and court.
