NRL Round 21 Preview and Prediction - Newcastle Knights v St. George Illawarra Dragons @ McDonald Jones Stadium

Newcastle Knights (16th) v St. George Illawarra Dragons (8th) @ McDonald Jones Stadium
 
Preview - The Dragons will be confident of making it back-to-back wins as they travel to Newcastle to take on the struggling Knights on Saturday afternoon. The Dragons finally found their attacking mojo last week, demolishing the high flying Sea Eagles 52-22 in a highly entertaining but wild game at WIN Stadium last Sunday. The win maintains the Dragons one-game lead over the Panthers in 8th spot as they look to protect that finals’ position they have worked so hard for this season. The Knights suffered one of their most disappointing defeats this year in a listless 28-4 loss to the Roosters at Allianz Stadium last Friday night. The Knights once again competed with plenty of vigour, however made far too many fundamental errors with  the football to give themselves any realistic chance of getting a 3rd win of the season.

History - These 2 sides met just over a month ago in a highly entertaining game at Kogarah with the Dragons coming from the clouds to reel in the Knights 32-28. The Knights scored 5 tries in 15 first half minutes to set up a 22 point lead however familiar frailties in defence and mindset were exposed in the 2nd half. The Dragons have an unbelievably good record against the Knights having won the past 5 clashes as well as 9 of the last 10. Amazingly the dragons have won 12 of their past 13 clashes in Newcastle. 
 
Newcastle Knights’ Scouting Report - The Knights welcome Ken Sio back on to the wing after he missed a couple of weeks through injury. Danny Levi has been demoted from the bench with the versatile Jamie Buhrer coming into the hooking role. Veteran Trent Hodgkinson retains his place in the halves alongside youngster Brock Lamb. 
 
St. George Illawarra Scouting Report - Youngster Matt Dufty has deservedly retained his place at fullback after a storming game on debut against the Sea Eagles last week. Dufty always looked a player capable of making it at NRL level with his dynamic running game and strong build, and I think he is a lock to make the fullback position his own from this moment forward. Josh Dugan returns from injury in the centres in place of Euan Aitken who again is out injured.
 
Verdict - Dragons by 10-18 in high scoring game

It's hard to fall into the Knights here given the importance of the game for the Dragons and the fact they found their attacking mojo again last week by racking 50 points against Manly. These sides have already played out an extremely high scoring game this season and I expect that to be the case again here, given the Dragons’ surge in confidence and the fact this game should be played in perfect daytime conditions on a fast track. I think the Dragons will be awake to Newcastle this time and won’t let them score anything like the 5 tries in 15 minutes they managed last time around. I see this game being close, however the Dragons have too much experience and quality in their side, and I think they will win this game by around 12-18 points to keep themselves in the Top 8 with just 5 rounds remaining.