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Dragons halfback Benji Marshall has revealed a match-day viewing of Peter Weir’s epic war film "Gallipoli’’ was behind his outstanding perfomance in his side’s 14-12 Anzac Day victory over the Roosters on Saturday.
Marshall picked up his second man-of-the-match award in three games after he guided the Dragons to their sixth straight win in some of the most atrocious conditions ever seen in an NRL match.
Driving rain, hail and thunder caused the match to be halted for around 30 minutes after the Dragons led 10-0 and looked well on top.
Marshall was visibly emotional during the New Zealand national anthem prior to the match as the significance of his first Anzac Day hit home.
‘‘I actually watched the movie Gallipoli [on Saturday],’’ Marshall said.
‘‘There’s a scene in there where they arrive at the landing and the rain’s just pouring down and they have to jump off the boat and get hammered with bullets. I was just proud because I haven’t been part of an Anzac Day game before. It was quite emotional and almost lost it out there to be honest. Standing out there in the conditions I just thought ‘this isn’t bad at all look what they had to do’. ‘‘
Marshall said the significance of the day combined with the awful conditions and closeness of the encounter left him more drained than he’d ever felt after club game.
‘‘It’s honestly the weirdest game I’ve ever been involved in,’’ Marshall said.
‘‘From the emotion of the ceremony before the game, warming up three times, the weather, hail, lightning...but it it just felt like whatever was thrown at us we kept turning up.
"We’ve got guys doing things that are putting the teams first in the back-end of games. Duges putting his body on the line there a few times and Gareth showed a lot of maturity by controlling parts of our kicking game.
"I got a lot of credit for today but I thought Gareth played exactly the same way I played and our forwards again kept turning up.
"As a team the amount of work we’re putting in for each other...everyone’s doing their job. All it takes is one person in the team not to do their job and everyone just keeps doing their job.’’
The victory was another win built on the back of defence but the kicking game of Marshall and Widdop proved crucial as they kicked the Roosters into submission in the second half.
‘‘We were kicking on the last in the first stint with a bit of pressure,’’ Marshall said.
‘‘We we came back we both took it on the fourth at times to put it in behind them and try and turn their big guys around. It felt with the kick chase we had everyone did their job. We put the kicks in but with the kick chase line, everyone was turning up for each other again. We found a way to win again off the back of our defence. Holding the best attacking team in the comp to 12 points is a fair achievement.’’