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Dragons Best be wary
David Jean, Canberra Times | March 27, 2008 - 9:47AM
Colin Best isn't sure why the Raiders are so hard to beat at Canberra Stadium. But the former Dragon remembers how hard St George Illawarra tried to crack the winning code at its bogey ground.
And he's sure Dragons coach Nathan Brown and his players are again wondering how to break through for their first win in Canberra since 2000 on Saturday night.
The Dragons haven't won in Canberrain eight years and have won just one of their past eight encounters against the Raiders.
Best said St George Illawarra had never come to grips with playing at Bruce.
"When I was there we were trying to work that out for years," Best said.
"I don't know whether it was a factor of the crowd and the cold and the travel.
"It was definitely something they used to bring up during the week.
"For some reason the Dragons in Canberra was basically like a bogey side. Hopefully that trend will continue."
Bestreturns to the Raiders line-up, allowing Bronx Goodwin to shift from the wing to fullback in place of the injured William Zillman.
The 127-game veteran, who spent two years at the Dragons before moving to Canberra last season, scored two tries for Queensland Cup side Souths Logan last week.
He admitted getting dropped for Goodwin last week had hurt.
"I was pretty furious to be honest last week but I'm past that now and hopefully I'll get into some good form and be in the side for the rest of the year.
"Basically [coach Neil Henry] wants a bit more enthusiasm and a bit more in my all-round game."
The Raiders boast a strong recent record against the Dragons, but they suffered a horror 58-16 loss to St George Illawarra in round 17 last year.
Dragons halfback Jamie Soward terrorised the Raiders' back three with high balls that day and Best expected more kicks would come his way after watching Soward's display against Gold Coast on Monday.
"They're a strong side when they complete sets and they've got a good kicking game on the end of it so we'll have to be on our game.
"Something that the whole club has worked on down here during the off-season is to be better defensively against kicks.
"It will be no different going into the Dragons game. Every game we'll be trying to be better against kicks."
Raiders hooker Lincoln Withers trained yesterday and was hopeful of returning from a rib injury.After pulling out on game day last week, Withers said he was more confident of playing on Saturday.
"Last week I was probably no chance and we just probably played the game a bit," Withers said. "But this week it's feeling a lot better.
"It's one of those painful injuries and we probably didn't want to take it into the game last week.
"With the interchange rule down to 10 now if you lose a player early it makes it hard on your bench."
Another former Dragon, Withers said St George Illawarra would be more confident travelling to Canberra early in the season.
"When I played at the Dragons they didn't like the cold and they always brought it up at training and tried things to get around it."
"But I think the more you talk about it the more you think about it."
"I think they'll go into the game just doing their normal stuff.
They had a good little win on Monday and hopefully they won't take too much momentum out of that."
Canberra Times
Source: http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/ne...raiders-plan-a-hostile-reception/1210633.html
I always had a lot of time for Besty when he was with us...
David Jean, Canberra Times | March 27, 2008 - 9:47AM
Colin Best isn't sure why the Raiders are so hard to beat at Canberra Stadium. But the former Dragon remembers how hard St George Illawarra tried to crack the winning code at its bogey ground.
And he's sure Dragons coach Nathan Brown and his players are again wondering how to break through for their first win in Canberra since 2000 on Saturday night.
The Dragons haven't won in Canberrain eight years and have won just one of their past eight encounters against the Raiders.
Best said St George Illawarra had never come to grips with playing at Bruce.
"When I was there we were trying to work that out for years," Best said.
"I don't know whether it was a factor of the crowd and the cold and the travel.
"It was definitely something they used to bring up during the week.
"For some reason the Dragons in Canberra was basically like a bogey side. Hopefully that trend will continue."
Bestreturns to the Raiders line-up, allowing Bronx Goodwin to shift from the wing to fullback in place of the injured William Zillman.
The 127-game veteran, who spent two years at the Dragons before moving to Canberra last season, scored two tries for Queensland Cup side Souths Logan last week.
He admitted getting dropped for Goodwin last week had hurt.
"I was pretty furious to be honest last week but I'm past that now and hopefully I'll get into some good form and be in the side for the rest of the year.
"Basically [coach Neil Henry] wants a bit more enthusiasm and a bit more in my all-round game."
The Raiders boast a strong recent record against the Dragons, but they suffered a horror 58-16 loss to St George Illawarra in round 17 last year.
Dragons halfback Jamie Soward terrorised the Raiders' back three with high balls that day and Best expected more kicks would come his way after watching Soward's display against Gold Coast on Monday.
"They're a strong side when they complete sets and they've got a good kicking game on the end of it so we'll have to be on our game.
"Something that the whole club has worked on down here during the off-season is to be better defensively against kicks.
"It will be no different going into the Dragons game. Every game we'll be trying to be better against kicks."
Raiders hooker Lincoln Withers trained yesterday and was hopeful of returning from a rib injury.After pulling out on game day last week, Withers said he was more confident of playing on Saturday.
"Last week I was probably no chance and we just probably played the game a bit," Withers said. "But this week it's feeling a lot better.
"It's one of those painful injuries and we probably didn't want to take it into the game last week.
"With the interchange rule down to 10 now if you lose a player early it makes it hard on your bench."
Another former Dragon, Withers said St George Illawarra would be more confident travelling to Canberra early in the season.
"When I played at the Dragons they didn't like the cold and they always brought it up at training and tried things to get around it."
"But I think the more you talk about it the more you think about it."
"I think they'll go into the game just doing their normal stuff.
They had a good little win on Monday and hopefully they won't take too much momentum out of that."
Canberra Times
Source: http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/ne...raiders-plan-a-hostile-reception/1210633.html
I always had a lot of time for Besty when he was with us...
