Michael Schirripa previews Friday night’s match between the Canberra Raiders and Newcastle Knights at GIO Stadium.
TEAM FORM GUIDE
Canberra Raiders
The Raiders sit 1-1 after 2 rounds and will be looking at the positives rather than the negatives after a sound defeat at the hands of an in-form Melbourne Storm side. Canberra gave up a 14-0 lead in the first half after a hat trick to Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu but found themselves winning the next period of the match 10-8. They were much improved in the second half and fixed the left edge defence which was their ultimate demise in the first half. It was a performance that would give coach Ricky Stuart plenty of optimism and it suggested that ‘green machine’ are still a work in progress, they will look to bounce back immediately against the Knights, who sit in a similar position.
Newcastle Knights
After a tough encounter against the Cronulla Sharks in Round 1, Newcastle found themselves again in a grinding affair against the Penrith Panthers, but this time fell short. Whilst not horrible, the Knights were far from their best and lacked polish in delivering the final product. They have plenty of reasons to be optimistic with former Bulldogs prop David Klemmer already making his mark in the squad, he ran for a mammoth 198 metres and made 34 tackles without a miss. Although not great, coach Nathan Brown will be looking for the same intensity on Friday as his team has played with in the first two rounds.
SQUAD NEWS
Canberra Raiders
Canberra will be without backrower Joe Tapine for 1-2 weeks after injuring his thumb against Melbourne, John Bateman will move into the back row with Ryan Sutton moving into lock for his first NRL start, Hudson Young will make his NRL debut off the bench.
Canberra Raiders 21-man squad: 1 Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 2 Nick Cotric 3 Jarrod Croker 4 Joseph Leilua 5 Jordan Rapana 6 Jack Wighton 7 Aidan Sezer 8 Josh Papalii 9 Josh Hodgson 10 Dunamis Lui 11 John Bateman 12 Elliott Whitehead 13 Ryan Sutton Interchange: 14 Siliva Havili 15 Hudson Young 16 Iosia Sloliola 17 Corey Horsburgh Reserves: 18 Sam Williams 19 JJ Collins 20 Bailey Simonsson 21 Jack Murchie
Newcastle Knights
Newcastle have named an unchanged line-up, Daniel Saifiti is tracking well from injury, but is still a couple of week away from selection.
Newcastle Knights 21-man squad: 1 Connor Watson 2 Edrick Lee 3 Hymel Hunt 4 Jesse Ramien 5 Shaun Kenny-Dowall 6 Kalyn Ponga 7 Mitchell Pearce 8 David Klemmer 9 Danny Levi 10 James Gavet 11 Siona Mata’utia 12 Lachlan Fitzgibbon 13 Tim Glasby Interchange: 14 Kurt Mann 15 Aidan Guerra 16 Mitchell Barnett 17 Herman Ese’ese Reserves: 18 Josh King 19 Mason Lino 20 Jamie Buhrer 21 Brodie Jones
HEAD TO HEAD
Since 2014, these sides have met 9 times with the Raiders edging Newcastle 5 wins to 3, the sides also had drawn in round 3 of 2016. Newcastle won the only meeting of last season 30-28, the Raiders will have bad memories from that match as they lead by 8 points heading into the closing stages of the game, before two Newcastle tries late in the encounter saw the men from the Hunter edge the game. The Raiders will be looking to eradicate that result this weekend, while Newcastle will be hoping for another successful trip down the Hume Highway this week.
KEY BATTLE
Both these sides have seen their former fullbacks in Jack Wighton (Raiders) and Kalyn Ponga (Knights) transition to the halves. Both Wighton and Ponga are extremely talented and have different strengths to their respective games. Wighton has started off the season pretty strongly, he is a strong defender and is a genuine ball-runner, whilst he has not created any tries as of yet, his kicking and passing game seems to be improved in the early stages and seems to be progressing into the role pretty nicely thus far. Knights ‘whiz kid’ Ponga has one of the fiercest sidesteps the game has ever seen and as seen last year, can turn any defender inside-out with his fancy footwork. Ponga has shown glimpses of his natural play making ability but will need to provide some more moments of brilliance. The Queensland Origin representative has been likened to Darren Lockyer, with many pundits comparing his move from the back to five-eighth to Lockyer’s. Canberra will need to limit the time Ponga has to attack at the line and will need to rely on their forwards to target Ponga, if Ponga gets into the game and shows why he is dubbed the ‘next Lockyer’ then it could spell trouble for the green machine. Newcastle must also watch Jack Wighton in attack, his hard-running style of play gives him the potential to break tackles at ease, it will certainly be an intriguing battle all night between these two inexperienced halves.
THE IMPORTANT DETAILS
Date: Friday 29th of March
Venue: GIO Stadium, Canberra
Kick-off: 6:00pm AEDT
WHO WILL WIN?
Both sides are 1-1 and it very much feels like that these teams will have a part to play in the making of the top 8 picture. Canberra and Newcastle have plenty to prove on Friday, both sides will need to play for 80 minutes if they are to win this game. Last week Canberra received a lesson from a tough Melbourne side, while Newcastle should have beaten Penrith. With the home crowd at their backs and a full week of preparation, the Raiders should win this… however it really is a flip of the coin, it could go either way.
Raiders by 4
