Canberra Raiders Cup Round 3 PreviewFor an updated ladder for the Canberra Raiders Cup Click HereFor the wrap up of the round results please Click HereCanberra Raiders Cup Round 3 previewWest Belconnen Warriors v Belconnen United Scholars at West Belconnen Leagues Club
West Belconnen Leagues Club will play host to this Saturday’s exciting local derby between the West Belconnen Warriors and the Belconnen United Scholars.
The local derby is renowned throughout the Canberra Raiders Cup as being particularly passionate encounters with neither side wanting to give away bragging rights to their arch rivals.
Scholars Coach John Hawke knows all too well the emotion and passion the local clash evokes having spent time as a junior in the Belconnen area.
“It’s definitely a benchmark game this weekend,” said Hawke.
“It’s always good to play one of your rivals and it’s always good to play West Belconnen at West Belconnen.”
“Being a former Belconnen junior myself it’s always a good grudge match. You don’t really have to motivate the players too much for this match.”
The Warriors have had a disappointing start to the season so far with losses suffered in both games so far, however Hawke is not paying too much attention to their early season form as traditionally the Warriors tend to lift for these local derbies.
“I haven’t read too much into that really [Woden defeating West Belconnen in round one 44-10 and Tuggeranong Bushrangers defeating West Belconnen 22-18].”
“The local derbies between West Belconnen and Belconnen United are usually pretty close matches so we won’t read too much into that we’ll just worry about this week.”
Touted as the early season favorites for this year’s competition, the Scholars own form has varied greatly. They suffered a heavy defeat in round one, going down 47-18 to last year’s premiers the Queanbeyan Kangaroos and then turned it around last week to defeat the Woden Valley Rams 46-20.
Hawke believes the round one touch up was a blessing in disguise and reminded his highly talented playing roster that talent alone won’t be enough to win this year’s competition.
“Attitude was the major difference between the two games. We probably got a bit ahead of ourselves and the guys thought that it would just happen, especially with the side we had. It was probably a God send for me as it was a bit of a reality check to the team.”
Our execution was still a bit poor last week but in moving forward our attitude was fantastic. We beat Woden quite convincingly and it was a good rebound from the first week where we were comprehensively beaten. Round one was probably a good reality check for us and we’re back on board and we’ll start again this weekend against West Belconnen where we’ll keep pushing on and looking for a second victory.”
The match will also feature several former NRL players such as Brent Crisp (Scholars) and Andrew Lomu (Warriors).
“It’s definitely great seeing those guys with NRL experience coming to the competition. We’ve got a few big guys ourselves so I dare say there’ll be a fair bit of contact out there with Lomu. Brent Crisp played his first game on the weekend too and his NRL experience has had a massive influence on the side.”
Goulburn Workers Bulldogs v Queanbeyan Blues at Workers ArenaGoulburn is yet to win this year although both their fixtures have been very close encounters. They drew in round one 24 all with the Tuggeranong Bushrangers and went down narrowly to the Yass Magpies 28-24.
They will need to be at their best against the Queanbeyan Blues who got are currently placed third in the competition. The Blues beat the Gungahlin Bulls 16-14 in their first hit out of the year last week after having had the bye in round one.
Queanbeyan Kangaroos v Woden Valley Rams at Freebody OvalQueanbeyan will be hoping they have lost none of their early season form in which they dismantled fellow title contender, Belconnen United Scholars, after having the bye last week.
The Roos won 47-18 over the Scholars and proved they will again be in the running for the title after having won last year’s competition.
Woden will be looking to bounce back after being smashed 46-20 by the Scholars last week. The Rams will be hoping from a similar performance centre Tim Crome delivered in round one in which he collected a personal points haul of twenty four points through three tries and six goals.
Tuggeranong Bushrangers v Yass Magpies at GreenwayYass is the only side to have won both their games so far this season and will aim to continue this trend in the first away game for the year against Tuggeranong.
The Bushrangers enjoyed a narrow 22-18 victory over the Warriors last week but will have to lift their game against the Magpies. The mood at the club is high though with all grades enjoying a win in round two.
Gungahlin Bulls have the byePlease Note: All games are played on Saturday with Reserve Grade kicking off at 1:20pm and First Grade kicking off at 3:00pm.
Source: Raiders
Topic: Canberra Raiders Cup Round 3 Preview
