It was an unhappy weekend for the Canberra Raiders junior representative teams, with both sides going down in their matches against the Parramatta Eels.
SG Ball
Parramatta 36 (N Aukafolau, A Seve, S Dresler, J Carr, M Tupou, V Tapa, J Curran tries; T Turnbull 4 goals) Canberra 24 (S Kris, S Ketia-Opo, S Schmidt, Williams tries; S Ketia-Opo 4 goals)
SG Ball lost their third straight match, going down to Parramatta 36-24 this week, leaving the side sitting at 3-3 and outside the top eight for the first time this season.
"The SG ball side couldn’t play the consistent brand of football required to get the result on the weekend. After a good start and a half time lead the team were looking like they were ready to turn their season back around and take control," Head Coach Dean Souter said.
"The second half didn’t mirror the first and missed tackles and turnover errors took their toll. With minimal possession the task was too hard and we lost 24-36. We travel to Sydney this Easter weekend in a position of needing to win to stay in the race."
Harold Matthews
Parramatta 34 (M Doorey 2, J Boumelhelm, W Kei, K Schneider, L Sommerton, D King tries; D Brown 2, K Schneider goals) Canberra 22 (J Church, M Draigisic, A Punou, Woolford tries; K Jensen 2, J Veloudos goals)
Harold Matthews lost 34-22 to league leaders Parramatta this week, but can take heart out of scoring more points than any other team has managed against the undefeated Eels so far this season.
“We came up against a very strong and well drilled Parramatta team. We knew that they would come down here ready to play and they did. I was really impressed with my team’s ability to stay in the contest,” Head Coach Adam Kyle said.
“Again this week we were down 10-0 and fought back to draw the game close to half time. In the second half Parramatta kicked away from us with three tries, but again we fought back hard and lifted our energy to give them a real shake. We ended up with two disallowed tries which would have brought it even closer."
But credit to Parramatta, they went on to win the game and take the points. We will learn a heap out of the game and look forward to taking on Norths this Saturday in Sydney.”
The loss leaves the Raiders in eighth place on the ladder heading into next weekend’s clash with the winless North Sydney Bears.
