Mixed results for Junior repsThere was cause for disappointment and joy in the Canberra Raiders’ junior representative ranks last Saturday at the Kippax Sports ground.
While the Harold Matthews suffered their third consecutive defeat 30-20 at the hands of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the SG Ball side managed to register an impressive win 22-16 over one of the competition’s heavy weights.
In the Harold Matthews the Raiders were valiant in defeat and made a good game of it against the undefeated Rabbitohs, however, like the previous week against the Bulldogs they were ultimately let down by some poor handling at vital times.
“If we’d held to our fair share of ball we’d have been with a chance,” Coach Brett Maron lamented after the game.
“You can’t give that sort of team that amount of possession and expect to come out with a different result.”
The Raiders opened up the scoring in the third minute after a nice cut out pass from centre cum five eighth Lachlan Croker saw Jaydon Pollard cross in the corner.
However, a series of mistakes in their own half by the Raiders boys led to three consecutive tries to South Sydney and after 22 minutes the Raiders were trailing 16-4.
Right on the stroke of half time Raiders captain Jack Hickson used some nice footwork to bamboozle the Bunnies’ defensive line to score under the posts and the home side went into the sheds down by only six points.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, the visitors managed to extend their lead just two minutes after half time when Rabbitohs back rower Nat Butcher touched down.
However, Pollard was able to come up with a try for the Raiders in the 36th minute, when he took advantage of some lazy marker defence close to the Souths line to cross from dummy half and reduce the deficit back to six.
Souths ultimately won the game in the last quarter of the match, scoring two tries through Coleman and Reimis Smith to blow the score line out 30-14 with four minutes left to play.
The Raiders had the last say in the second half after some good build up play from back rower Jeremy Rooke and centre Jack Williams which led to Hickson touching down for his second try. But at that point it was all too late, the Raiders going down to a more composed South Sydney side.
The SG Ball game was a real contest with the scores being close throughout the entire match. The Raiders ultimately won it through some breathtaking attack combined with some crunching defence at crucial moments.
Souths opened the scoring in the fifth minute of play when hooker Cameron McInnes scooted over from dummy half, however, the Raiders struck back for their first try less than 5 minutes later when Brenko Lee and Siaosi Pohahau combined well down the right hand blind side to create a try for back rower Josh Bateman. Anthony Milford converted and the scoreboard read 6 all after ten minutes gone.
Souths then scored again in the 16th minute after halfback Christian Hazard crossed under the posts, but the Raiders responded in 25th minute when Lee scored an excellent solo try.
Taking the ball 40 metres out from the Rabbitohs line, the talented centre used a combination of speed and good footwork to stand up three Souths defenders before touching down out wide. Milford missed the conversion and the teams went into the half time break with the visitors leading 12-10.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half was a tight affair, with the majority of play being confined between both teams’ 30 metres lines. However, South grabbed the first points of the half after a nice short ball from Hazard put Karl Saena in. Dylan Walker missed the conversion leaving the score at 16-10.
The Raiders refused to lie down and scored again not long after, when a rampaging Hayden Pengelly crashed over under the posts. Another successful conversion from Milford saw the scores level with 16 minutes left to go in the game.
Then in the 59th minute Milford produced a brilliant piece of play to break the dead lock. On the last tackle, 40 metres out from the Souths ‘ line Milford chipped, re-gathered and outpaced the South Sydney cover defence to score what proved the winning try for his team.
In the remaining 10 minutes of the match the Raiders put on a defensive master class continually defusing a series of attacking raids from the South Sydney side with some desperate scrambling defence.
However, despite the win coach Peter Marrapodi believed there was still a bit of work to be done before the team reached its full potential.
“We’re about two weeks away from being a really good side in this competition, but we’re building towards that,” Marrapodi said after the game.
According to the coach, the best player of the day for the SG Ball team was prop Mitchell Shaw whose superb efforts attack and defence played a significant role in the Raiders’ victory.
Source: Canberra Raiders
Topic: Mixed results for Junior reps
