Saints needed ugly win: Soward

JAMIE Soward insists the St George Illawarra Dragons can still make the play-offs after holding out against Gold Coast on Friday night.

JAMIE Soward admits St George Illawarra have been suffering from a lack of confidence in 2012 - but insists they can still make the play-offs after holding out against Gold Coast on Friday night.

Premiers only two years ago, the Dragons are a team under pressure with a string of losses putting a giant question mark over the future of rookie coach Steve Price and ageing stars Ben Hornby and Matt Cooper.

Asked if the players had been down on confidence before the gritty 8-6 victory at WIN Stadium, Soward replied: "It's been pretty obvious.

"That's why it was so important to get the two points against the Gold Coast. Didn't matter how. Didn't matter if we won two-nil, eight-six or whatever. There's no doubting the win wasn't pretty - we all understand that.

"But we really hung in defensively and did what we were supposed to do. On our line we didn't feel threatened, we always felt in control. It was just a relief to win and that result ... it brings us a little bit further out of that hole."

With both sides scoring just one try in the ordinary conditions, the result was eventually determined by two Soward penalty goals and a defensive effort he labelled their best of the season. In fact, the only complaint the five-eighth had was the Steedens used for the Women In League round.

"For some reason that ball is tougher to kick with," he said. "I actually thought it might have been a different ball because it doesn't make sense that a change in logo would make such a difference.

"To me the ball we used looked more like a rugby union ball. It was surprisingly difficult to kick with and the more you kicked it, the ball just seemed to get rounder and rounder."

Soward said he had similar issues in the corresponding round last year, although NRL officials last night insisted the only change was that the Steedens were painted in pink and blue instead of black.

But there was an upside.

"You didn't have to kick it as hard to get about 10 or 15 metres further," he said. "I don't know how or why - even on the drop-outs. I'm not the biggest boot but a guy like Jarryd Hayne ... he could kick it 70 or 80 metres I reckon.

"So I don't know what the process is, whether they switch the ball up. You'd think they would just swap the logos, not the balls, but I found it harder to pass, too."

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