Toyota Cup: Raiders only slim chance of finals after loss

The Canberra Raiders are only a slim hope of making the finals in the National Youth Competition after courageously going down 24-8 to the Newcastle Knights at Austgrid Stadium yesterday.

Coach David Hamilton labelled the game as a “do or die” encounter and that was evident from the way his side played throughout the match. The disappointing result entails that this looks like it will be the first time in the Toyota Cup’s history that the Raiders will not be a part of the finals.

The Knights were in a similar position to Canberra in that every game for the rest of the season is a grand final in order to keep their season alive and this set the platform for an enthralling contest.

Nonetheless Hamilton, whilst bitterly disappointed with the result and its adverse consequences, was proud of the heart shown by his side even if the execution wasn’t there.

“There was effort there. The kids had a go; they just didn't have the smarts. Some errors at important times cost us; maybe we were trying too hard at times.”

The game was still in the balance at half time with the Knights just ahead by two points, however inexperience and the loss of strike player Nathan Massey to an injury to his left ankle lead to the Novocastrians’ triumph.

“I don't know [the diagnosis] yet but it's not good. We haven't assessed it yet but we just didn't want to leave him out there. Mass saved our butts a couple of times and created some opportunities.”

The Knights’ win was the first time Newcastle has beaten Canberra since the Toyota Cup’s inception, and Hamilton wasn’t taking anything away from his opponent’s victory.

“Newcastle were more enthusiastic, they wanted it more. There were patches there where they muscled up and a couple of times we did, but not as consistently as they did.”

After an inspired start from both sides, the Knights were first to score in the 17th minute. With the Raiders defence tiring after defending a repeat set of six, hooker Chad Redman turned the ball inside to Korbin Sims, brother of Ashton and Tariq, who barged over underneath the uprights. Tyler Sullivan converted from in front.

The Raiders hit back in the 30th minute after Massey scooped up a loose ball, accelerated downfield and found Michael Chee Kam who flicked the ball out to winger Mark Tuaati who was able to slam the ball down amidst the converging defence. Chris Medcalf missed the conversion from the right hand touchline.

After repeat penalties from the commencement of the second stanza, Sims got his second for in the 42nd minute after passing onto Tyrone Roberts then looping around to storm onto the ball as Roberts’ offloaded. Sims, in the process of scoring landed on Massey’s ankle and injuring the Raiders’ valuable custodian in the process.

Ben Picker hit back for Canberra in the 51st minute after scooting hard and fast from dummy half ten metres out from the Newcastle try line to score his first Toyota Cup try. The usually reliable Medcalf, who has the highest strike rate of any kicker in the competition with 81%, again missed the conversion.

“The Raiders hadn’t been in the game until that point in the second half and from there it was game on,” said former international Brett Kimmorely.

Alas, Redman broke Raiders’ hearts in the 69th minute when he broke the line and with no fullback in position after Massey, who had courageously returned to the field, again succumbed to injury and failed to get back in position. Sullivan made no mistakes with the conversion, making the score 18-8 with ten minutes left to play.

From there, the Mata’utia brothers engineered a try two minutes from fulltime to seal the victory for the Novocastrians.

As the Green Machine looks to build towards next season, a positive can be viewed in the fact that they have blooded several promising prospects this year.

“That's part of it those boys [Papalii and Williams] being up there. We've blooded eight under 18s for next year, so that's a big positive.”

Source: raiders.com.au