Canberra Raiders Representative Wrap Up
Trans Tasman Test Match:Canberra Raiders Vice-Captain David Shillington was inspirational on Friday night for the Kangaroos in Australia’s 20-12 victory at Eden Park.
The hard-working front rower suffered a laceration under his chin in the early minutes of the Test match after a crunching tackle from the Kiwis, but returned to the field to lead Australia’s forwards to a hard fought victory.
Blood flowed strongly from the wound and required the attention of the trainers from the Australian camp, however Shillington’s toughness and immense passion for his country were evident as the 114kg workhorse instantaneously had his wound strapped and returned to the action.
The 28 year old did his country proud by displaying courage and resilience in defence against a ferocious New Zealand forward pack and making 111 vital metres in attack.
Shillington’s impressive performance will no doubt see him as a favourite for one of the starting positions in the Queensland front row for Origin One.
Under 20s State of OriginSaturday night’s inaugural State of Origin saw the Canberra Raiders represented in both camps with the monstrous Shannon Boyd named on the bench but starting in the front row for New South Wales and the electric Edrick Lee lining up in the centres for Queensland.
In what was a gripping encounter witnessed by 5105 intrigued spectators, the match was eventually won by the Baby Blues 18-14 at Penrith’s Centrebet Stadium.
While Boyd enjoyed the spoils over his Raiders Under 20s team mate, Lee was close to being the best player on the field.
The towering 196cm centre scored two tries with the highlight being a 70 metre dash to the try line off a scrum win, in which he brushed aside the game’s official Man of the Match Harry Seijka.
The 19 year olds performance even drew praise from Queensland State of Origin Coach and former Raiders great, Mal Meninga, who likened Lee to the amazing Greg Inglis.
“He [Meninga] said I had a good performance and he said that in a way I’m starting to look like Greg Inglis,” Lee said.
“Of course I’m nowhere near his level but I’ve watched a few of his games and he’s got that lethal fend and speed and I’m hoping to utilize those same qualities in the Toyota Cup. Mal pops into training every now and then and tells us a few things at training.”
City-CountryCanberra Raiders Country representatives Blake Ferguson, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs and Josh McCrone yesterday continued what was a successful representative weekend for the club with the trio registering three quality performances in the City-Country match in Mudgee on Sunday, despite City narrowly taking out the titile 24-22.
Ferguson was particularly impressive for Country and earned the Players’ Player award for his two try performance; the highlight being a 90 metre intercept try which inspired Country’s comeback.
“Today gives me a lot of confidence and the most satisfying thing to come out of the whole game is being voted by my peers at the players’ player,” Ferguson said.
“You can’t get much better than that in your first rep game.”
Temora native McCrone had a hand in Ferguson’s second four pointer by craftily putting through a well-placed grubber for his Raiders teammate to pounce on.
“He killed it and played the same way he has all year. It’s good to see that he can perform on the big stage,” McCrone said.
“It [his performance] can’t hurt him, I don’t know if there were three or four [Origin candidates] in front of him [before yesterday] but he’s been one of our best all season.”
“One thing I have worked on is my consistency and the older players at the club have helped me with that on and off the field,” Ferguson said.
“If the [Origin] opportunity comes I’ll take it with both hands but I just want to play consistent footy.”
All of the Raiders representative players have come through the weekend fully fit and will all be available for selection for this Sunday’s game against the Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium.
Source: Raiders
Topic: Raiders Put in Inspirational Efforts in Rep Games
