By Mary Maidiotis
St George Illawarra Dragons five-eighth Gareth Widdop is hoping the combination of momentum and confidence can push his side to win their final two games, starting with the Gold Coast Titans at Cbus Super Stadium, Robina on Sunday.
The England Lions international is happy to have halves partner Benji Marshall back in the team and was quick to praise prop Leeson Ah Mau for his recent string of outstanding performances.
Widdop, 26, believes it will be a tough game against the Titans and stresses the importance of the Red-and-Whites winning their final two matches to secure their spot in the top eight, as opposed to relying on the results of other teams.
“The body pulled up okay, it was great to have the weekend off so we could have a few days to recover, we haven’t had that for the past two or three weeks but now I feel good,” said Widdop.
“It was good to have Benji back against the Panthers, we need those combinations firing heading into the back-end of the year.
“When Benji is out there, I have to take a bit more responsibility but other than that, my role doesn’t change too much within the team.
“The Titans had a great win over the weekend, they’ve got nothing to lose now so no doubt it’s going to be a tough match but we’ve just got to worry about ourselves first.
“Obviously we don’t want to be relying on other results, it’s just about us, we’ve got to keep winning, we’ve built a bit of confidence over the last couple of weeks and hopefully it will help us get the two wins.
“Leeson Ah Mau has been great, I’d say he’s been in career-best form in the last few weeks, he’s lead the boys really strong, it makes it our job as halfbacks a lot easier when you’ve got a forward going forward so hopefully he can keep playing that way.”
