BY VIV

What a week for both teams. St George celebrated a 42-14 trouncing of the Eels by sacking their coach. The Raiders come into this game with one player suspended, two players recovering from category 1 HIAs and Darrin Borthwick looking at the gaps in his forward pack the same way I look at the makeup of my social netball team before a 9pm game.

The Dragons have a mathematical chance of making the finals if they win their last three games and will come into this game with some confidence. They name an unchanged squad from last week with some reshuffling of players. Watch out for Kasey Reh, she is an 18-year-old halfback who captained the NSW under 19 origin team to a 46-4 victory. The Dragons locked her up on a 3-year deal and will be a household name before you know it.

Simaima Taufa sits this game out with a concussion and the squad will need to heed her pre-season advice about finding the leadership potential within (You haven’t watched Raiders Rising yet? Go do that). The Raiders are going to have to find the resolve to not crumple at the first sight of adversity – the squad is injured, the refs can’t make a call in our favour, we gotta find a way to win anyway.

Changes

As mentioned, Taufa is out and Chante Temara moves into lock. Chante has no qualms in trying to take down the big girls and has played some lock (QCup sickos, it was a Holcim Cup match from 2020) and Emma Barnes gets her start at hooker. It’s great to see Barnes get her opportunity to start after being one of our stronger players this season. In a press conference today, Borthwick said the plan was to shuffle Chante from lock to hooker to spell Barnes if needed. Our usual utility Naitokatoka also out with an HIA we are vulnerable if anything goes awry with our spine on Saturday.

In the backs, Mackenzie Wiki has been a late (as in half an hour ago) withdrawal due to illness so we unleash the weapon herself, Relna Wuruki-Hosea into the starting lineup. She’s got big shoes to fill and hopefully, Wiki is back next week.

Monalisa Soliola returns to the second row, but we lose Hollie-Mae Dodd to suspension. Felice Quinlan gets the starting spot in the second row and will need to work on making all her tackles this week. 

Its big woman szn on the bench – Kere Matua, Amelia Pasikala, Jaida Faleono and Tatiana Finau. The worry will be what happens if something happens to an outside back. Our bench options are …matua played centre for the Cook Islands in 2022?!??? Hopefully, that’s not something we have to think about on Saturday.

Pasikala should be better for the run last week. Faleono has been playing for Bond Uni in premier rugby since she was 15 before coming over to rugby league. She’s played under 18s for Qld City before moving to Canberra for Tarsha Gale Cup.

Tatiana Finau has been promoted from 18th player to a bench spot which we have been waiting for since the trial. Her goalkicking has been on point for Mounties (4 from 5 last week!) and we are looking forward to seeing more powerful runs. Faleono and Finau have an opportunity to take a spot from some of our underperforming forwards and will provide a glimpse of what the future holds for this club.

Key Matchups

Apii Nicholls and Tegan Berry

Apii is yet to cross the try line in her NRL career, in comparison, Berry has scored 21 tries making her the NRLW’s highest try scorer. Berry will find a gap in the line and sprint downfield, and Nicholls is more likely to be a link player in our backline shifts.

Raecene McGregor and Ash Quinlan

The Pacific Championship draw was announced earlier this week and this game will give us a preview of the Kiwi Ferns’ halfback options. McGregor is the incumbent but Ash will want to make her claim for more game time.

Conclusion

The drought has got to end soon! Why not this weekend, Raiders by a 2-point Finau field goal!

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