What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Match Discussion: Round 2 vs Raiders @ GIO Stadium Canberra

Who will win? Round 2: Raiders v Knights


  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .

League Unlimited News

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
7,623


NRL 2018 - Round 2
Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights
GIO Stadium Canberra, Bruce (TICKETS)
Sunday 18 March 2018

Gates 5:15pm / NRL 6:30pm


TL-CAN18.png


1. Jack Wighton 2. Nick Cotric 3. Jarrod Croker 4. Joseph Leilua 5. Jordan Rapana 6. Blake Austin 7. Sam Williams 8. Iosia Soliola 9. Siliva Havili 10. Shannon Boyd 11. Josh Papalii 12. Elliot Whitehead 13. Luke Bateman
Interchange: 14. Aidan Sezer 15. Junior Paulo 16. Dunamis Lui 17. Charlie Gubb 18. Craig Garvey 19. Michael Oldfield 20. Royce Hunt 21. Jack Murchie

TL-NEW18.png


1. Kalyn Ponga 2. Shaun Kenny-dowall 3. Sione Mata'utia 4. Tautau Moga 5. Nathan Ross 6. Connor Watson 7. Mitchell Pearce 8. Herman Ese'ese 9. Slade Griffin 10. Jacob Lillyman 11. Lachlan Fitzgibbon 12. Aidan Guerra 13. Mitchell Barnett
Interchange: 14. Brock Lamb 15. Chris Heighington 16. Jamie Buhrer 17. Daniel Saifiti 18. Ken Sio 19. Jacob Saifiti 20. Danny Levi 21. Luke Yates


REF-BLACK-1000px_1.jpg


Referees: Ashley Klein, Matt Noyen
Sideline Officials: Ricky MacFarlane, Belinda Sleeman
Video Referees: Steve Chiddy, Bryan Norrie

Feeder club matches
SAT | Mounties (CAN) v Roosters/Wyong @ Aubrey Keech Reserve, Flegg 1pm / ISP 3pm
Newcastle v Western Suburbs (WST) @ Leichhardt, ISP 1pm (Ch 9 NSW)
Newcastle v Wests Tigers @ Cessnock SG, Flegg 3pm​
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Burwood

Bench
Messages
4,769
The Titans did us no favours yesterday by embarrassing Canberra. Going to be very tough for the boys to back up after the highs of the opening round. Will be happy just to see a consistent performance across the 80 minutes- a win will be an added bonus.
 

Frederick

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
27,533
Raiders pack is very similar to Manly and Parras - full of fast fattys who are hard to bring down when they build up some momentum

Raiders will be without Tapine, who broke his finger in last nights game
 
Messages
3,663
I'll be ok if we improve on last week win or lose. We have a lot to work on.
I'd like a win and think we are capable of it but I think we'll need to get used to a bit of a see-saw
 

Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,155
This is one of those games where I won't be surprised if we pull off another gritty win but I also won't be surprised if we get hammered.

Pretty hard to tip in my mind, Canberra are a very loose team and Sunday night's game showed us they haven't really overcome their bad habits from last year. Their goal line defence is abysmal at times especially on the edges so I expect us to go wide to our outside backs and I hope we bring Moga into the game in attack a bit more. I also hope we can get Ponga and Watson sniffing around the ruck looking for an inside pass or offload, I would love to see these guys carve up those big raiders forwards.

The obvious strength of the Raiders is their massive pack and we don't have a lot of size in ours which looks like a weakness in paper but if we play ball a bit and run them around and create second phase play I think we can tire them out and we'll start to see a few cracks exposed.

Either way it's great to go into this game off the back of a win, it should be a confidence booster for the boys. Also the Raiders are one of the few sides that we have actually had a good record over in the last few years so I don't think the boys will be scared to take them on because we know that we can beat them.
 
Messages
10,886
Same squad as last week named:

1. Kalyn Ponga
2. Shaun Kenny-Dowall
3. Sione Mata’utia
4. Tautau Moga
5. Nathan Ross
6. Connor Watson
7. Mitchell Pearce (c)
8. Herman Ese’ese
9. Slade Griffin
10. Jacob Lillyman
11. Lachlan Fitzgibbon
12. Aidan Guerra
13. Mitch Barnett

14. Brock Lamb
15. Chris Heighington
16. Jamie Buhrer (c)
17. Daniel Saifiti

18. Ken Sio
19. Jacob Saifiti
20. Danny Levi
21. Luke Yates
 

Matt23

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
16,495
I’m of the opinion that we need Jacob Saifiti in the 17 against the raiders, I’d start Lamb, with Jacob Saifiti coming in at Heigno’s expense
 
Last edited:

Knight Vision

First Grade
Messages
5,066
I’m of the opinion that we need Jacob Saifiti in the 17 against the raiders, I’d start Lamb, with Jacob Saifiti coming in at Heigno’s expense
Understand what you're saying but I think we need experience more than we need size and Heigno wasnt brought to the club because he's a gun, he was brought for experience at the back end of games, something we have been missing last year.
 

Swarzey

Bench
Messages
4,165
Raiders have the worst spine in the NRL with Hodgson out. Their forwards are big and can cause a lot of damage but ultimately, they don't have the players in the spine to capitalise. They don't have a DCE or anyone like the Turbo brothers, their threats lie on the edges but can be easily shut down if our defence is even at the standard it was last week. Get that right and it's an easy victory.

Us by 18. Raiders don't have it this year without Hodgson.
 

Hardcore_Fan

Juniors
Messages
1,489
I’d rather someone who you can almost guarantee won’t miss a tackle and can make 90-100m off the bench like heino, than someone who might make 120m or might make 60 metres, he might not miss a tackle or he might miss 3. Successful teams are built on consistent players not players that may provide impact sometimes.
 

perverse

Referee
Messages
25,828
Raiders have the worst spine in the NRL with Hodgson out. Their forwards are big and can cause a lot of damage but ultimately, they don't have the players in the spine to capitalise. They don't have a DCE or anyone like the Turbo brothers, their threats lie on the edges but can be easily shut down if our defence is even at the standard it was last week. Get that right and it's an easy victory.

Us by 18. Raiders don't have it this year without Hodgson.
I agree with this in theory, but we're an unknown quantity. I think we should account for the Raiders as they are at the moment, but first away game with the new team... I dunno, will take a couple of months as always to have any confidence in what we're doing.

I do think Ponga can have a good time against their pack as it tires, though.
 

Burwood

Bench
Messages
4,769
They’ll kill us in offloads and broken play. Watch Leilua the arsewipe have a field day against us.
 

Pedge1971

First Grade
Messages
5,898
This worries me a little. We need to take their best in the first 20 and then use our little guys up the middle after some good momentum building hit ups.

Their spine is weak but their fwds and outside backs are huge.
 

Haffa

Guest
Messages
15,881
Newcastle 26 - Irrelevant Stop off point on the road to melbourne which has since been bypassed 18

Refs will get us home.

I considered making this my non Sydney/QLD away game for the season but then I remembered Canberra is a boring shithole populated by Bogans and Over paid public servants. Only so many times one person can go to Questacon. So I'll be watching from home.
 

Choppy182

Juniors
Messages
88
Need some size off the bench. If we maintain >75% completion rate with little penalties, Raiders will lose it themselves.
 

PhilGould

Bench
Messages
3,316
Yates and Saifiti were both late scratchings from the NSW Cup side. I imagine they'll both be travelling with the top grade side with Buhrer in doubt.
 

Latest posts

Top