Scott relishing switch to centre - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Scott relishing switch to centre

By Ed Jackson 13/06/2009 09:36:50 AM Comments (0)

A few eyebrows were raised when St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett chose to turn Beau Scott into a centre earlier this year.

The 25-year-old had spent the majority of his career with the NRL club in the forwards but has become key to the Dragons' success since donning the No.3 jersey in round two.

But it seems adjusting was easier than many would have thought.

"After round one, Wayne came up to me and asked me how I'd feel about playing centre the following week," Scott told AAP.

"I gave it a bit of thought and I agreed with him, thought it was a good move to try and we've sort of just gone from there.

"It's been working for us every week so we haven't had to change anything and we're getting results.

"I played all my junior football at centre anyway so it's sort of a homecoming for me. I'm definitely enjoying it out there."

Scott's switch has seen him combine with Matt Cooper in one of the strongest defensive centre pairings in the competition, as well as freeing up halves Jamie Soward and Ben Hornby to spark the Dragons in attack.

Scott is currently third on the list of average tackles per game by a centre this season, while no halves pairing make fewer tackles per game than Hornby and Soward.

"As a right-side unit we work together week-to-week on our defence," Scott said.

"He's (Soward) a big part of our team in attack so if I can make him more effective there it's handy for the whole team."

Scott and Cooper will have to be at their defensive best on Sunday as the Dragons aim to bounce back from Monday's disappointing loss to the Gold Coast when they welcome North Queensland to WIN Stadium.

The Cowboys have been in red-hot form thanks to their inspirational captain Johnathan Thurston, the halfback scoring a match-winning hat-trick when these teams met in Townsville last month.

Scott said it would take more than just one player to keep Thurston at bay on Sunday.

"He's a guy with a lot to his game so we'll have to work as a unit and a team and hopefully find a way to contain him," he said.

"They're in pretty good form at the moment, they've started playing pretty good football ever since we actually played them up there in Queensland and lost to them.

"But we also had a loss on the weekend so it'll be good to turn that around as quickly as we can too."

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

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