Round 11: St George-Illawarra Dragons vs Canberra Raiders

[DIEHARD]

Dragons v Raiders
Sunday 3pm - WIN Stadium

The Dragons face their toughest test yet in 2010, meeting one of their biggest ?bogey? opponents with a team decimated by Origin call-ups.

Meanwhile the Raiders get a great chance to right their ship and push back towards the finals zone; although they lie a lowly 13th they are just a win away from the trio of teams that occupy 7th through 9th spots on the NRL ladder.

And given their outstanding record against the Dragons in recent times ? they?ve won their past three and seven of the past eight between the sides ? it would almost be expected.

Well, almost.

The Raiders remain one of the most hot-and-cold sides in the comp. At home last week against a Storm side down on confidence (and hope) after their belting at the hands of the Broncos the previous week, the Raiders were truly disappointing. That loss was their third in their past four games, with a solid win away to the Warriors in Round 8 their only recent joy.

They lose some tall timber for this clash, with David Shillington and Tom Learoyd-Lahrs selected for the Maroons and Blues respectively. That?s seen Scott Logan named to start at prop, with Joe Picker starting in the second row. Brett Kelly, Danny Galea and Sam Mataora are the new faces joining Troy Thompson on the bench, with Travis Waddell relegated.

Meanwhile the Dragons have lost Darius Boyd and Neville Costigan to Queensland, and Brett Morris, Matt Cooper, Michael Weyman and Ben Creagh to the Blues. Kyle Stanley ? 19-year-old brother of former Dragon, now Storm centre Chase ? makes his debut at fullback, while Michael Lett occupies Morris? wing.

Trent Merrin, Rick Thorby and Nick Emmett step in for Weyman, Creagh and Costigan.

Elsewhere, Beau Scott returns from injury to assume his centre spot, with his replacement in recent weeks Matt Prior substituting for Cooper.

Jon Green, Jarrod Saffy (returning from injury), Jake Marketo and Michael Greenfield make up the bench.

Watch out Dragons: A Raiders win is likely to come off the back of standout performances from fullback Josh Dugan and five-eighth Terry Campese.

Campese will be inwardly simmering at being overlooked for Origin. Here, he gets the chance to exploit the indecision that will likely come out wide.

And Dugan? He leads the comp for tackle breaks (68) and is making 156 metres a game; he?ll punish the Dragons if their clearing kicks land anywhere in his vicinity ? especially given Creagh and Morris, the leading ?good chasers? in the comp, are missing. Jamie Soward needs to post better than his current 52 per cent kicks to open space.

Watch out Raiders: The Raiders can?t afford to get complacent up against the under-strength Dragons or they?ll be in for a rude shock.

While the red and whites will miss the decoy work of Creagh and Weyman, who with 50 and 40 decoy runs respectively are ranked first and fourth in the NRL, Wayne Bennett will be calling on Dan Hunt, Jon Green (both 30) and Dean Young (27) to keep their bodies in motion around the ruck to confuse the Raiders defenders.

Where it will be won: For the Raiders, it all boils down to knocking the Dragons off their game; for the Dragons, cohesion and executing their plays with an inexperienced line-up will be the key.

The Dragons are far and away the best side at building pressure. They are able to do this because of their ?hallowed? respect for possession ? they record almost 44 touches of the ball for every error they commit, easily the best rate in the NRL.

But with several new faces, the Raiders? game plan should be to get up in the face of the Dragons? hit-up merchants and minimise territorial gain. That in turn will place pressure on the clearing kicks of Jamie Soward and, with a sustained effort, will surely lead to errors.

Sounds simple. And it is ? providing the Raiders dedicate themselves to the task.

While the Raiders are strongest attacking down the right-hand side (15 of 26 tries scored), they may want to mix things up, given the Dragons have conceded just five of their 17 tries in this area.

A possible chink in the Dragons? armour would be that they have defused cross-field bombs just 50 per cent of the time, so if Terry Campese targets the inexperienced Michael Lett it could lead to points.

The history: Played 17; Raiders 10, Dragons 6, drawn 1. The Raiders have won seven of the past eight clashes, including the past three. In that time they recorded their biggest ever win over the Red V ? a 30-6 spanking in Canberra in 2007.

Conclusion: The Dragons upset the Titans in Round 6 with a depleted forward pack, so they?ve got the depth to get the job done here. The big question is whether they can still pull off their strong left-side plays missing pretty much all the strike components in Boyd, Cooper, Creagh and Morris.

The Raiders? record against the Dragons is excellent, but the Dragons hold a 2-1 advantage in games at WIN, with one draw. Possibly the home ground advantage will get them home.

Match officials: Referees ? Steve Lyons & Tony De Las Heras; Sideline Officials ? Adam Devcich & Ricky McFarlane; Video Ref ? Sean Hampstead.

Televised: Channel Nine ? Delayed 4pm; Fox Sports ? Delayed 6pm.

Source: http://www.nrl.com

[DIEHARD]

Canberra stun Dragons in second half

St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett is confident his side can stay at the top of the NRL ladder despite ongoing State of Origin commitments and the season loss of front rower Dan Hunt before Sunday's 22-14 loss to Canberra.

In a simple training exercise before the match in Wollongong, Hunt managed to rupture his Achilles tendon, despite having no prior signs that the area was weak.

With absent NSW big man Michael Weyman now the club's only experienced starting prop, the Dragons front row depth will be tested, with the likes of Jon Green, Trent Merrin and Michael Greenfield now required to step up.

However Bennett said his side has the staff to cover Hunt's loss and wasn't worried about losing such an important player.

"If it starts raining I'll have a rain jacket with me, you just get on with it don't you," said Bennett, who is missing another six players to Origin.

"We had 10 players missing today so our depth's not at question, we managed to fill up 10 places and they are all starters.

"We're going to miss him (Hunt) but at the moment he's the only player we've got on the roster that won't come back this year. If that's the worst it gets for us for the rest of the year we'll be ok."

The Dragons were brave in defeat, with two players making their debuts, and under 20s prop Alex McKinnon sitting on the bench after playing a full Toyota Cup match, just in case he was needed following Hunt's withdrawal.

They even looked like they could rustle up a win after tries to Jason Nightingale and Kyle Stanley gave them an 8-6 lead after 43 minutes.

But a golden nine minute run with tries to Joel Thompson (51st), Jarrod Croker (55th) and Josh Dugan (57th) set the Dragons back on their heels, something Hunt go to experience quite literally before the game even began.

"I was just warming up doing a defence drill. I took off and heard something snap and I was in a lot of pain," Hunt said of his injury.

"I'm just really disappointed, I don't really have much to say."

Bennett was stunned by the severity of the injury, given the innocuous circumstance in which it occurred.

"He went to push off the line, he thought someone had kicked him, he looked around to see who had kicked him in the Achilles and realised no one had kicked him, it'd just collapsed. He's got a full tear there by the look of it," said Bennett.

"No I haven't (ever seem something like it), not in that situation. Not that serious an injury."

For the Raiders it was another highly commendable performance away from home and continues their recent good run against the merger side.

After struggling for so long on the road, three out of their four wins for this season have now been away from Canberra Stadium.

"It wasn't a massive focus for this year but I think some of those games (lost away last year) we were in them until the 75th minute and it's about starting to learn from mistakes," said coach, David Furner.

Source: http://www.nrl.com