HIS side went 0-3 at the Auckland Nines but Dragons coach Paul McGregor will have plenty to smile about when he reviews video of Saturday’s 50-6 win over Wynnum-Manly in Brisbane.
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With Benji Marshall injured and Drew Hutchison leading the Dragons around Eden Park, young halves Shaun Nona and Blake Wallace proved the major surprise packets.
Former Melbourne prospect Nona was a surprise starter alongside skipper Gareth Widdop in the halves and played the full 80 minutes at the scrum-base.
Wallace was even more impressive after replacing Widdop at halftime producing a hat-trick of tries and adding three goals for a personal tally of 18 points.
The Dapto product returned to the Illawarra last year after three seasons in the Queensland Cup and was one of the Illawarra Cutters best over the latter half of the NSW Cup season.
The standout performance came against Queensland Cup opposition but the showings of both Nona and Wallace will at least give McGregor some food for thought should the Dragons suffer any injuries to their top-grade halves.
The match was also a strong return from Russell Packer who turned out in top grade colours for the first time alongside former schoolboy teammate Leeson Ah Mau who looks set to continue the form that saw him named club player of the year last season.
"The game served its purpose. Everyone got the minutes that the coach wanted and I thought we did pretty well against a Queensland Cup team," Packer said.
"It will be good to build on that for the next game against Souths in the Charity Shield.
“I felt pretty gassed in the first stint but the first trial game always serves its purpose of blowing the cobwebs out.
"It's been a hard four-and-a-half months and it's good to be in the Red V, to be in a Dragons jersey and playing with the boys."
New recruit Taane Milne and Peter Mata’utia, who scored two tries, were other standouts while Siliva Havili was strong in the middle.
The Dragons fortunes weren’t so good in Auckland where they failed to win a game and finished bottom of Piha Pool with at -29 points.
They were perhaps unlucky to go down to Canberra 28-20 in their first match that saw several long-range tries to both sides before Luke Bateman’s second with just minutes left sealed the win for the Raiders.
A controversial no-try ruling that denied Kalifa Faifai Loa was the telling moment of their 17-8 loss to the Sharks while they simply looked out-gunned going down 24-12 to Titans on Sunday.
Kurt Mann pushed his claim for a starting berth come round one while Euan Aitken was probably the Dragons best for the tournament with four tries.
