Canberra Raiders vs New Zealand Warriors preview and teams – NRL 2013 Round 6
Joseph
The second NRL Round 6 match today is between Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors. The opening kick is set to commence at 7:30pm local time with the game to be played at Canberra Stadium. The home team Canberra Raiders are the short priced favourites for the match. View our preview and teams for the game between Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors.
Watch Out Raiders: After losing their last eight matches of last season, and their first three this season, the Warriors are in recovery mode – and that means livewire halfback Shaun Johnson is improving. We’re still waiting to see him return to his best, but it may not be far away. Johnson can make tries or score them – he’s bagged 20 in 43 games so far.
Watch Out Warriors: The Raiders are renowned for fielding huge forward packs, and when those packs fire they are too often too big and too strong for the opposition at home. Prop David Shillington is pressing for a Test spot. He led the way in the win over the Roosters with 15 runs for 159 metres during his 54 minutes on the field. The Warriors have got to match him.
Plays To Watch: Reece Robinson coming out of the backfield is a threat every time for the Raiders, and if the Warriors are having one of their indifferent days in defence he will carve them up. Robinson is averaging 132 metres and has made 21 tackle busts, the seventh most by any player.
Young centre Konrad Hurrell has scored a try in each of his last three games for the Warriors. Last season, he scored 12 in 17 games. He’s a big threat, the way he hits on to the ball at speed.
Key Match-Up: Josh Papalii, for the home side, and Feleti Mateo, for the visitors, are anything but dull second-rowers. They can each make things happen in attack. Papalii is so hard to tackle, and has made three line-breaks this season. After leading all players for offloads in 2012 (with 61), Mateo has come up with 14 offloads so far. It is natural to expect both to have an impact in what is a potentially open game.
Where It Will Be Won: When you’ve got two teams with plenty of attacking spark, what happens out of dummy-half to try to get things moving will have a big bearing on the result. And here we’ve got the old and the young – 32-year-old Nathan Friend for the Warriors and 22-year-old Matt McIlwrick for the Raiders. McIlwrick has to hold his nerve here.
Teams:
Canberra Raiders:
Reece Robinson, Sandor Earl, Jarrod Croker, Jack Wighton, Edrick Lee, Josh McCrone (c), Sam Williams, David Shillington (c), Matt McIlwrick, Brett White, Josh Papalii, Joel Edwards, Shaun Fensom
Interchange: Anthony Milford, Joe Picker, Dane Tilse, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Terry Campese (one to be omitted).
New Zealand Warriors:
Kevin Locke, Bill Tupou, Ngani Laumape, Konrad Hurrell, Manu Vatuvei, Thomas Leuluai, Shaun Johnson, Sam Rapira, Nathan Friend, Russell Packer, Feleti Mateo, Simon Mannering (c), Todd Lowrie
Interchange: Ben Matulino, Elijah Taylor, Jacob Lillyman, Pita Godinet, Ben Henry (one to be omitted).
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