The Canberra Raiders junior representative teams return to Raiders Belconnen this Saturday, looking for big performances as the final stretch of games approach.
Harold Matthews
The Canberra Raiders Harold Matthews side picked up their third win of the 2016 season with a thrilling 25-24 victory over Balmain in round five.
Trailing 10-0 early on, the Junior Raiders managed to stay in the contest before crossing twice before the break to level the scores at 10-all.
Head Coach Adam Kyle stressed the importance of sticking to the side’s structure at the halftime break, leading to a number of fantastic efforts in attack and defence.
Balmain scored a converted try to lock the scores up at 24-all with three minutes remaining, before the Green Machine forced an error from the kick-off to gain possession. A break off the scrum laid the platform for the side’s halfback to slot the winning field goal.
Kyle was impressed with the way his side stuck with Balmain throughout the contest.
“They are a really strong side and we never really led until late in the game. Our resilience was outstanding and the boys are starting to really understand our team structure.”
The side now turns their attention to a clash with the unbeaten Parramatta Eels this weekend, who have racked up a remarkable 216 points in the opening five rounds, whilst conceding just 34.
“They are a very strong and well coached team,” said Kyle.
“We know we are up against the best in the competition. This will be a great test for us as a group and we will need to make sure we stick to our game plan and all players will need to play their part.
“We hope to see all the Raiders fans out in support for our home game.”
The Raiders host the Eels at the Raiders Belconnen at 12:30pm.
RAIDERS 1 JACOB CHURCH 2 TREMAYNE CHATFIELD 3 HARLEY SMITH- SHIELDS 4 DANIEL GOODWIN 5 TRISTAN ELDRIDGE 6 LACHLAN EVESTON 7 JOHN VELOUDOS 8 MATTHEW DRAGISIC 9 JOE ROBERTS 10 ALEXAVIER PUNOU 11 KALI TAISENI 12 JONAH LATU 13 KRISTIAN JENSEN © 14 LOUIS JANG 15 TYLER PETERS 16 TATE BROOKE 17 SOLOMONE KAUFUSI 18 WAYNE PARKER COACH ADAM KYLE
EELS 1 JOHN PAUL NOHRA 2 JOSHUA BOUMELHEM 3 WILLIAM KEI 4 PETER TEVAGA 5 CLIFF LEA’AETOA 6 HYRUM WICHMANN 7 DYLAN BROWN 8 MARK TEPU SMITH 9 KYLE SCHNEIDER (@) 10 HARRY DUGGAN 11 MATT DOOREY 12 VALANCE HARRIS 13 UELLINGTON SEVE 14 LUKE SOMMERTON 15 CHARBEL TASIPALE 16 PHILLIP FANENE 17 DALLAS KING 18 DANE OOSTENDORP 19 RONAN KING 20 TYLER FIELD 21 DENNIS MAITAIA 22 ASAELI VUICAKI 23 JAYDEN TANNER 24 STEFANO UTOIKAMANU 25 COACH SCOTT JONES
SG Ball
The Raiders SG Ball side fell to their second consecutive loss on the weekend, going down 36-28 at the hands of the Balmain Tigers in round five.
Dean Souter said that costly errors at crucial moments in the match are to blame for the result.
“The team is still playing some good football but the weight of possession against us makes it too hard to close out games,” said Souter.
“Defensively we are working hard but need to work smarter. Contact and ground/ball control are areas we can improve on.
“At the end of the day if we can have an even share of possession and our chance of beating teams increases. I believe our group is capable of beating any side when we apply ourselves for the full 70 minutes. This week’s focus is on ourselves.”
The Raiders will look to bounce back against the Parramatta Eels at Raiders Belconnen on Saturday at 2pm.
RAIDERS 1 ANDRE NIKO 2 JEDIDIAH SIMBIKEN 3 SEBASTIAN KRIS 4 MATHEW LYONS 5 DAINE SPENCER 6 SATO KETIA-OPO 7 LACHLAN COOPER 8 TEVITA FEHOKO 23 JESSE DENT 20 FRANCIS-SOKAI TAI 11 SHARMAH SCHMIDT 17 DYLAN CLARK 13 DANIEL KEIR 14 TIM MERRITT 24 LAZARUS VAALEPU 21 DUSTIN LITSTER 25 KOMITI TUILAGI 18 LUKE BURTON
EELS 1 JOHN FONUA 2 NOEL AUKAFOLAU 3 TUI AFUALO 4 ETHAN PARRY 5 HAZE DUNSTER 6 ALEX SEVE 7 TRAVIS TURNBULL 8 OREGON KAUFUSI 9 ADAM CAMPBELL 10 STEVE DRESLER 11 JOSH CARR © 12 FILIA UTOIKAMANU 13 JOSH CURRAN 14 VEA TAPA 16 ELIE ELZAKHEM 17 MICHAEL TUPOU 18 VINNIE TIKERI 19 JESSE CRONIN 20 KYLE CASSEL 25 BEN VALU COACH NATHAN CAYLESS
Round 6
Harold Matthews - Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels
, Raiders Belconnen, Saturday 19 March
, 12:30pm
SG Ball - Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels
, Raiders Belconnen, Saturday 19 March
, 2:00pm
If Newcastle is too far to travel to watch the Raiders play, Raiders Belconnen will be the next best place! Come down to the club early to catch all the action of the Raiders junior teams, before staying to watch the NRL game on the big screens in comfort. 
