St. George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan has shone a brutally honest light on his side’s 38-32 loss to the Cowboys in Townsville.
Having surged back into the match after trailing 28-12 at half time, the Dragons were foiled by late tries to Tom Dearden and Jaxon Purdue, consigning them to a fourth straight NRL defeat.
“Tonight we didn’t deserve to win,” Flanagan lamented of a game that saw the Dragons dominate with 55% possession but still come up empty.
“We scored some good tries, but we let in too many soft tries—you can’t get into a game of touch footy with the Cowboys.”
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‘It’s crazy, you just can’t do it’
While entertaining for neutrals, neither Flanagan or Cowboys coach Todd Payten would be overly happy with their team’s defensive efforts in a match that saw 13 tries and 59 missed tackles.
“We didn’t want to get into a ‘you score, we score’ type of game,” Flanagan said, but ultimately that’s exactly what happened.
“If you let Tommy Dearden and (Scott) Drinkwater play like that in their own backyard, it’s crazy, you just can’t do it.”
The Round 21 loss sees the Dragons fall below the Cowboys to twelfth on the NRL ladder, three wins adrift of the top eight.