Dragons players have revealed how a “home truth” session has forced them to take ownership of recent performances they admit have not been up to “any NRL standard”.

After going pointless in their last two games against North Queensland and Brisbane, St George Illawarra now face the threat of officially equalling the worst attacking start to a season since 1989 if they fail to break their scoring drought against the Gold Coast on Saturday.

After scoring just 40 points in their first six games, the Dragons need to get on the board this week — or they will be level with the Western Suburbs team of 1989, that scored the same amount of points in their first seven games.

Adding to the club’s concerns, Benji Marshall on Wednesday did not last the full session in Wollongong before he left his teammates to get treatment for his ongoing hamstring problem and fill-in half Josh McCrone stepped in.

Marshall has already said that he will be a certain starter on Saturday after missing last week’s 26-0 drubbing by the Broncos.

While much of the blame has been handed to the underperforming halves partnership of Marshall and skipper Gareth Widdop for the attacking woes, hooker Mitch Rein said the players had spoken about how every player needed to take ownership.

And it wasn’t only the attack letting them down.

“We just spoke a few home truths,” Rein said of the team meeting.

Benji Marshall during a Dragons training session. Pic Brett Costello Source: News Limited

“We have really let ourselves down, especially these last two games.

“Don’t get me wrong, they are two greats sides.

“But we didn’t perform the way we know we are capable of.

“That is the most disappointing thing. Turning over cheap ball, unforced errors and not giving ourselves a chance.

“We are too tired at the back end of games.

“And our defence, what we are known for, being rock solid, has let us down at the back end of games as well.”

The Dragons have constantly made the point that in the two games they have won this year they have completed at over 80 per cent — compared to around 60 per cent completions in their four losses.

“Look, no one ever means to make mistakes,” Rein added.

“But we are in the game where mistakes are going to happen.

A dejected Josh Dugan after the Cowboys clash. Source: Getty Images

“It’s how you react to them and we haven’t been reacting how we have in the past.

“It’s not up to our standards and it is not up to any NRL standard if you want to be successful.”

Star fullback Josh Dugan agreed: “Obviously I am not going to say what we said behind closed doors but we just sort of said a couple of things that we as players need to start driving.

“We haven’t been up to first grade standards over the last couple of weeks and that’s no secret.

“To not score a point in two weeks is pretty disappointing and to leak that many points as well (52 points) is disappointing.”

While dropped balls have been a huge factor, Dugan added completing sets and building pressure with the right kicks was crucial.

“We are obviously not completing but also kicking the ball dead on last tackle and not having the right option for our last play,” Dugan said.

“I think we gave away five 20 metre restarts last week and that is not good enough.

“You look at the Souths game (which the Dragons won 8-6 at the SCG). I think we had five repeat sets.

“We are chasing points and we are trying too hard. We just have to go back to believing in ourselves and believing in each other.

“The effort is there. You can see that. We are just running out of gas at the end of games.”