St George Illawarra Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan has admitted Saturday's win over the Melbourne Storm was 'stressful', and revealed he wants his side to not put themselves under pressure as much as they did at Kogarah.
In what was the first win of the season for the Red V coming off a bye in Round 3, defence was the order of the day as they turned Melbourne away time and time again on their own try line.
While there will be claims of a lopsided penalty count impacting the Dragons, the club regularly turned the ball over in the first half before relying on their defence to bail them out of trouble.
The Storm had nearly 50 tackles inside the opposition 20 but only came away with a single try to show for it, and Flanagan said good sides don't put themselves under pressure regularly although confirmed he was impressed with the effort to defend the tryline on a wet afternoon at the spiritual home of the St George Dragons.
“It was very stressful because we did a lot of good stuff, and to get that close and always have in the back of your mind that one of those errors [could cost you]. In the last ten minutes, we still had a few errors in us and they are a class club,” Flanagan said.
“You can't give them opportunities on your tryline but we had a bit of resolve about us today.
“In the first two weeks, that's where we had been really poor. The Bulldogs strolled over for two easy tries, and Souths scored one from dummy half and one untouched. It was pleasing [our goal line defence] but also, I just don't want to do that much of it. A lot of errors put us in that position,” Flanagan said on the club's goal line defence.
“Good sides like Melbourne and Penrith don't put themselves under pressure. I think we are a good footy side, but we can't put ourselves under pressure like we did today because we aren't going to be able to do those type of things, 48 tackles on our tryline, week in and week out.”
The win means the Dragons hold a one and two record to go with a bye over the opening three weeks, and should send them into next week's Saturday afternoon clash with the Parramatta Eels as the favourites.
That game will see the return of Clint Gutherson to Parramatta, and will also mark the first game for Zac Lomax against his old club.
