St George Illawarra prepared for defensive test in Storm clash

The Dragons travelled to Brisbane on Saturday morning ahead of Sunday afternoon's clash with the Storm, Melbourne riding high on a six-game winning streak.

Such has been their dominance, the side has scored 244 points during that span.

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Even without Cameron Munster, Harry Grant and Brandon Smith, Griffin expects the Storm to pose a unique challenge, but the coach is confident his team will be up to the task.

"It's a good test for us," Griffin said. "They're obviously in great form, they've had three really big wins over the last few weeks. We got back on the scoreboard last week, so it will be a good test for us this week.

"We've been okay defensively for most of the year. Last week I thought we were pretty clean most of the day, we didn't let in a line break and even though we haven't been getting the results, I thought the previous month we've been pretty sound there most of the time.

"We've got to build on what we've been doing, but we've had a good week at training and I think we'll defend well."

The Magic Round clash comes as new rule interpretations threaten to turn one of the biggest weekends in the competition into a complete farce.

Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V'landys announced on Friday that high tackles will no longer be tolerated, referees instructed to use the sin bin and send off for all direct and forceful contact with the head.

Coaches, players, commentators and fans were left furious by the use of the sin bin for seemingly innocuous incidents during Friday night's double header, with six players sent to the sin bin across the two games.

Hook refused to be drawn on the validity of the new rules, instead urging his team to adapt to the changes to ensure their chances of victory are not dashed by an untimely sin bin or send off.

"You've just got to play to the rules. If they're the rules, it is what it is.

"Nothing's going to change until they make a change, so we've just got to make sure we don't put ourselves in those positions."