Lawrence proud to pull on Magpie Jersey Again

Wests Tigers centre Chris Lawrence was the guest columnist for the weekly 'Tiger Talk' column.
The colum is part of a weekly Tiger Talk feature in the Campbelltown Advertiser each Wednesday.

We may have been beaten but I know we walked off AAMI Park on Monday night proud of our performance.

No one likes to get beaten in professional sport. You work so hard all week in preparing for a match and then it comes down to an 80 minute performance.

For us on Monday night, I thought we played very well against the Melbourne Storm but the pressure of not seeing much ball and doing plenty of defensive work told in the back end.

The Storm are not premiers and world club champions for no reason. However I thought we threw plenty at them in attack and we looked dangerous at times.

Our defence was much better than the previous week’s loss to Manly.

We took plenty of confidence out of our performance and we will look to capitalise on this when we take on the rejuvenated St George-Illawarra Dragons at the Sydney Cricket Ground this Sunday.

As a Magpies junior, I will be very proud again to pull on the Western Suburbs heritage jersey as the Club celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Grand Final between the Magpies and the Dragons.

The Dragons won the premiership that year but the match is well remembered for the famous ‘Gladiators’ photo of rivals captains Arthur Summons (Wests) and Norm Provan (St George).

I speak on behalf of all my team-mates when I say we are very much looking forward to playing on the hallowed turf of the SCG.

Having played there before and being a sports lover myself, it is a just a wonderful feeling to be able to run onto the turf that has graced so many champions in the past.

You can’t help but get caught up in the history of the SCG, especially in the dressing rooms where you see endless records of Test cricket centuries scored there and some of the names that have sat there before us. It certainly does give you a lift.

Wests Tigers have planned a huge range of entertainment and activities to mark the occasion and I encourage plenty of our fans to head out to the SCG for what will be a wonderful day.

Players from the 1963 Grand Final will do a lap of honour before the main game too. It is always great to remember our past champions so make sure you give them a warm round of applause.

Tickets are still available for the match. I can’t wait for Sunday.