Captain Gareth Widdop is committed to staying at fullback as long as coach Paul McGregor wants him there, after the Dragons stumbled to consecutive losses on Thursday night against South Sydney.

McGregor's backline reshuffle - partnering Corey Norman and Ben Hunt in the halves and having Matt Dufty for late-game impact - showed some promise in the first-half at Kogarah, before the Dragons were blown away by a rampant Rabbitohs forward pack.

Without Tyson Frizell and Jack de Belin, St George Illawarra struggled to match their firepower, which then turned up the heat on the new-look spine. 

And the NRL blowtorch will remain on them, with trips to Brisbane and Newcastle in the next fortnight, a potentially disastrous 0-4 start.

Widdop only managed 42 run metres, including 26 kick return metres, but in the aftermath of the 34-18 loss to Souths, Widdop is adamant he can persevere at fullback. 

"At the end of the day, Mary's (McGregor) the coach and it's his decision to selection team on what he feels fits," Widdop said. 

"And it's our job to do our role as best we can. It's a matter of what the coach wants us to do."

READ MORE: St George Illawarra outmatched by classy Rabbitohs

Widdop has spent his entire NRL career at five-eighth, including the 2012 premiership with Melbourne, but impressive at fullback for England helped sway McGregor to push him to fullback.

"It's obviously not firing at the moment, we're not making it easy on ourselves," he said. "...I've played in the NRL for 9-10 years and played at five-eighth.

"I've played fullback in small periods, I'm still learning."

Widdop pin-pointed the Dragons struggle to complete their sets in the second half as major reason for the loss, after leading 12-6 at half-time.

They finished with 30 completed of 40 sets, while Souths had 43 sets and completed 32 of them. 

Korbin Sims, recruited from Brisbane, could be rushed straight into the starting line-up to add some defensive starch to the Dragons pack, having been suspended in the opening two rounds.  Already rocked by NSW representative forward Jack de Belin being stood down by the NRL while facing rape allegations under the new "no-fault" policy, McGregor then had to find a replacement for Frizell after suffering a lacerated testicle in the loss to the Cowboys.

The Dragons have been quick out of the blocks in the past decade and often criticised for late-season fade-outs. In 2015, the Dragons lost their opening two games to Melbourne and the Tigers, before launching a six-game winning streak in a season where they bowed out in the first week of the finals in a thrilling 11-10 loss to Canterbury.

Meanwhile, Rabbitohs prop Liam Knight faces a one-week suspension with an early guilty plea for a chicken wing tackle on James Graham. 

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