Wendell Sailor has grown accustomed to being in the spotlight.

And while he admits it's been a tough week watching others around him leave for State of Origin duty, Sailor showed he's happy to lead St George Illawarra in the absence of their rep stars.

Sailor inspired the Dragons to a 38-10 NRL thumping of Penrith in Wollongong on Friday night with two tries.

He knows the importance of winning games during Origin season from his time with Brisbane.

"We need to win these games," Sailor said.

"I know what it's like when blokes are away for Origin - blokes can drop intensity. I just think with the culture we have now, we need to win these games.

"The Dogs are going all right, a lot of teams are going good, but it's about our culture and when you lose players, you fill those holes.

"There's only one Ben Creagh and Justin Poore and those sort of guys, so we've just got to pick up the slack."

Sailor said he had endured a pretty tough week and coach Wayne Bennett joked his larger-than-life winger needed some special attention.

"He had a bit of a downer earlier in the week ... He wasn't talking about himself as much," Bennett said.

"After the Origin teams were picked I said to Ben (Hornby), I can see he's struggling, he thinks he should be in one of those Origin teams, the Blues or the Maroons, but he got over it.

"We picked him up, we told him that we needed him and he was wanted here."

Sailor was outscored and outshone in recent weeks by his fellow winger Brett Morris and it has fired up some friendly rivalry in the Dragons camp.

"I've had a few things on my mind," Sailor said.

"Brett Morris has been getting a lot of accolades and deservedly so. He's out-scoring me and I like to get in the spotlight a little bit.

"Sometimes he (Morris) calls me the old dog.

"He'll call me the old man and sledges me about losing my speed.

"I just thought tonight I need to step up for us, and hopefully I did that. I want to keep going with that."

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