St George Illawarra’s Shane Flanagan era is off to a disappointing start as undermanned South Sydney ran out 28-6 winners in the Charity Shield.
Some 8827 fans flocked to Jubilee Stadium on Saturday to see the new dawn breaking but they’d have left certain the Dragons under Flanagan are a work in progress.
Braidon Burns scores a try during the NRL Pre-Season Challenge round one match against the Dragons. Credit:
His side started at near full-strength but found only one try, gift-wrapped by a rival error, against a Souths outfit missing Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker, Jack Wighton, Campbell Graham and Damien Cook.
After a defensively solid start, the Dragons buckled late as stars progressively went to the bench, leaking three tries in the last 18 minutes to fall well behind.
The Rabbitohs, meanwhile, head to Las Vegas next week with a spring in their step ahead of their season opener.
“It’s a good start,” Souths coach Jason Demetriou said of the win.
Cameron Murray in action. Credit:
“You know it’s not going to be perfect, but you want to see (the team) going after the things that we said we value. I saw that tonight.”
Following Junior Amone’s off-season axing, Kyle Flanagan had a solid if unremarkable club debut at five-eighth for St George Illawarra.