St George Illawarra Dragons Head Coach Paul McGregor has backed halfback Benji Marshall to shine against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium, Olympic Park on Monday.
The New Zealand international made his debut for the Red in the loss to the Parramatta Eels last round competing in his first competitive rugby league fixture in over six months.
McGregor has named Marshall as halfback for the upcoming fixture after a further two weeks of training alongside his new teammates and is confident of what the player will produce.
“Benji in particular needs to be given time, we all know he can play football but he’s only coming back to rugby league after six months out,” said McGregor.
“However, each time I’ve seen him out there on the football field he’s been improving but again it will take time.
“We all spoke about his first game and the five errors but what about his two try assists that were called back.
“It could have been two tries and three errors and everyone is talking about how good he is.”
McGregor additionally address the team’s defensive problems which has seen the team concede almost triple digits in the past two outings.
“We’ve had positional changes to a few players and some of the teams have been attacking us through certain positional areas on the field,” said McGregor.
“We’ve turned over a fair bit of ball over the past month and we’ve also played some quality football teams too.
“I think it’s a culmination of a lot of things but you can’t change everything in one day, you just have to keep working hard to chip away and get it right.
“I’m happy with the squad we have here but if someone was to come along we would look at him.
“At the moment we have a group of men that work pretty hard and they need to get the job done.
“No one else needs to come in, we have them all here and we just need to make it work.”
Watch Head Coach Paul McGregor additionally share his thoughts on the team's recent form on the field, the challenges that await playing the South Sydney Rabbitohs as well as his role within the NSW Blues State of Origin camp on Dragons TV.
