St George's Fien wary of X-factor tag - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

St George's Fien wary of X-factor tag

By David Beniuk 09/08/2010 05:56:57 PM Comments (0)

St George Illawarra hooker Nathan Fien is wary of expectations he could be the X-factor that will ignite the Dragons' attack.

Fien successfully returned from a horrendous injury when he was a late inclusion on the bench for Sunday's epic 19-12 win over the Sydney Roosters.

With Wayne Bennett's side again grinding their way to a victory, expectations are high that Fien and centre Mark Gasnier can provide the spark to carry the Dragons all the way.

"I'm just not getting too carried away with what people are saying and it's sort of the furthest thing from my mind," Fien told AAP.

"I've got to do all the little things right within our team and do my job and hopefully cement my spot.

"I don't know about attacking spark, I've still got to get out there and do the tackles that everyone else is doing as well."

The Dragons have continued to focus their attacking raids down the left side, leaving right centre Gasnier to wait for opportunities.

The former Test star made the most of those at the SCG, showing beautiful hands to catch and pass for a Jason Nightingale try in the first half.

"There's been a lot of talk about our attack but, to be quite honest, if you're winning games it doesn't really matter how many points you score," Fien said.

"Everyone in the team, right across the park, is just doing their job and if we do that we're going to give ourselves opportunities to win.

"We could have scratched up a little bit better, we blew a few opportunities late in the first half to score a few points but that's going to come."

Fien arrived at the club from the Warriors mid season last year to spark the Dragons' work around the ruck after impressing Bennett during New Zealand's successful 2008 World Cup campaign.

He badly fractured his leg in this year's round one clash with Parramatta, and required surgery.

The 31-year-old has played just 58 minutes in 2010, making his return on Sunday after one NSW Cup game with Shellharbour.

"After the operation the surgeon said it would be 20 weeks so we'd always sort of had this in the back of our mind, it would be round 21 or 22 and it's worked out that way," he said.

"I was probably a little bit rusty with a few skill things, I'd like to get better.

"Hopefully I can cement my spot over the next few weeks and be a part of what NRL players want to be a part of, and that's the finals."

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