Did the decision to switch Josh Dugan to the centres backfire? That was the question many Dragons were left asking following their side’s 26-10 loss to the Warriors on Sunday.
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Dugan will play at right centre for Mal Meninga’s Australian Test side on Friday night but made the switch a week early for the Dragons after an injury to regular centre Tim Lafai prompted a back-line reshuffle. The switch saw Euan Aitken return from injury on the left edge with Adam Quinlan playing his first game for the club since round 22, 2014.
Dugan – who is averaging more than 200 run metres a game at fullback – was typically industrious but saw precious little football on the right edge while Quinlan struggled at the back with just seven carries for 69 metres as the Dragons were held try-less in the second half for the fifth straight game.
Having abandoned the plan to switch Dugan permanently to centres after just two rounds McGregor said the move was brought about more from necessity than design.
“We lost [Tim] Lafai late this week at training and he’s our left centre,” McGregor said.
“Young Taane [Milne] got knocked out last week against the Roosters and he was right to play but it was difficult situation to put a kid in after he’s been knocked out. We needed [someone] to play 80 minutes whereas he only played 50 last week.
“We lost Joel Thompson [suspension] as our left back-rower so Will Matthews needed to start left back-rower and not at right centre.
“Adam Quinlan has been outstanding in reserve grade so the logical choice was to bring him in as a genuine fullback and move Duges to right centre because of the changes we had with Thompson and Lafai missing on that left edge.”
The Dragons looked strong early on despite the reshuffle, completing all but two of their seventeen sets in the first half and finding the try-line on five occasions only to be twice denied by controversial obstruction calls from the bunker.
The 26th minute decision to disallow Benji Marshall what looked like a fair try in his return from injury proved a telling point in the match as Warriors forward Charlie Gubb scored four minutes later to give the home-side an 18-6 lead.
The decision was blasted by the Fox Sports commentary team but McGregor refused to blame them for the loss.
“It certainly doesn’t help when you get three tries turned away but that’s not the reason we lost today,” McGregor said.
“They had a big bearing on how the momentum changed during that period but you’ve just got to move on from that. Attitude’s everything and a lot about rugby league is mental strength and today we just weren’t mentally tough.”
