Match day guide and preview for the Canberra Raiders 2022 round 8 game against the New Zealand Warriors.
Match details
Who: New Zealand Warriors vs Canberra Raiders
When: Saturday 30 April 3pm
Where: Moreton Daily Stadium, Redcliffe
Weather: Min 19 Max 26. Chance of rain 70%, 0 to 2mm
Head-to-head record: Played 46. Raiders 25 wins. Warriors 21 wins.
Team lists
| Canberra Raiders | New Zealand Warriors | |
| Jordan Rapana | 1 | Reece Walsh |
| Nick Cotric | 2 | Rocco Berry |
| Matt Timoko | 3 | Jesse Arthars |
| Semi Valemei | 4 | Adam Pompey |
| Xavier Savage | 5 | Viliami Vailea |
| Jack Wighton | 6 | Chanel Harris-Tavita |
| Brad Schneider | 7 | Shaun Johnson |
| Josh Papalii | 8 | Addin Fonua-Blake |
| Tom Starling | 9 | Wayde Egan |
| Joe Tapine | 10 | Matthew Lodge |
| Hudson Young | 11 | Euan Aitken |
| Adam Elliott | 16 | 12 | Bayley Sironen |
| Ryan Sutton | 13 | Jazz Tevaga |
| BENCH | BENCH | |
| Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad | 14 | Taniela Otukolo |
| Corey Harawira-Naera | 15 | Bunty Afoa |
| Corey Horsburgh | 17 | 16 | Eliesa Katoa |
| Harry Rushton | 18 | 17 | Jack Murchie |
| RESERVES | RESERVES | |
| Matt Frawley | 19 | 18 | Edward Kosi |
| Trey Mooney | 22 | 20 | Ben Murdoch-Masila |
Captain Elliott Whitehead was initially expect to return from a nsaty facial injury, but has been withdrawn. Adam Elliott will start in the second row with Harry Rushton coming back onto the bench.
The Warriors have made a host of changes after last week’s humiliating 70-10 defeat to the Melbourne Storm on ANZAC Day with Rocco Berry, Viliami Vailea, Jack Murchie and Eliesa Katoa all coming in to the side.
Season so far
Raiders 15th | 94 points for | 176 points against | 2 wins & 5 losses | LLLLW
Canberra’s poor start to the season continued with a convincing 36-6 loss to the Panthers last week, although Stuart claimed the start of the game was his team’s best 55 minutes of the season.
The result was a good indication of where the Raiders are at compared to the best team in the NRL, with Canberra able to hang in there for a while, but were simply overpowered in the second half.
There’s been so much said about the Raiders needing to produce an 80-minute performance, but the problem has now been going for over 12 months and the club has shown no improvement in that area.
The next two weeks against the Warriors and Bulldogs are simply must win games for this club if they want to restore some pride and keep their slim finals chances alive.
Warriors 11th | 119 points for | 182 points against | 3 wins & 4 losses | LLWWW
The Warriors were starting to look good with three wins on the trot before being crashing back to reality with consecutive losses against the Roosters and Storm.
They had been competitive in all of their games until the second half against the Storm, with Melbourne piling on 54 unanswered points in one of the great demolition jobs.
New Zealand trailed just 16-10 at half time, but the Storm ran in an incredible ten tries in the second half to embarrass the Warriors.
While it was a horrible loss, the Warriors have been pretty solid this season and would like their chances of bouncing back with a win.
Last 5 meetings
- 2021 round 24: Warriors 16 – 28 Raiders at BB Print Stadium, Mackay
- 2021 round 3: Raiders 31 – 34 Warriors at GIO Stadium
- 2020 round 19: Raiders 26 – 14 Warriors at GIO Stadium
- 2020 round 2: Warriors 6 – 20 Raiders at Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast
- 2019 round 25: Raiders 20 – 24 Warriors at GIO Stadium
The Raiders hold a slight 3-2 edge over the last 5 meetings, including a comeback win in their previous encounter late last season.
After trailing 16-0 after just 25 minutes, the Raiders produced the last five tries on the game to run out 28-16 winners.
The Warriors won the earlier match last year, although Canberra lost three players in the first 10 minutes and were only overrun in the dying minutes.
Key matchup
Jordan Rapana vs Reece Walsh
Rapana was thrust into the fullback role last week after Nicoll-Klokstad’s indifferent start to the season, but it was difficult to assess how big of an impact the change made given Penrith’s dominance.
Rapana filled in at the back last year to good effect, giving the Raiders plenty of run from their own end and an attacking threat around the ruck.
While Rapana may be the best option at fullback right now, if the club continues to struggle, it may only be a matter of time before Stuart decides to give Xavier Savage valuable NRL experience in the position.
Walsh was a brilliant pick up for the Warriors last year and although he hasn’t quite hit his straps in 2022, the 19-year-old continues to show a plethora of potential.
The Queenslander racked up 9 tries, 11 try assists and 14 line breaks in 16 games in 2021 but has yet to score a try this year and has 3 try assists and 3 line breaks in 6 games.
Despite the reduced attacking stats, Walsh has still managed to run for over 100 metres in all games this season at an average of 155m per game.
Walsh still poses the biggest threat for the Warriors and could really cause some damage if he’s allowed space, while the Raiders need Rapana to spark their lackluster attack.
Pre match predictions
Poor Jazz hands: Jazz Tevaga to make three handling errors.
Big Red-cliffe: Corey ‘Big Red’ Horsburgh to score just his second NRL try in Redcliffe.
Other match details
The NRL match will be broadcast live on Fox League channel 502 at 3pm and is also available to stream on Kayo. Overseas fans can watch via Watch NRL.
You can listen to the match on Raiders on Mix (Mix106.3 FM), Radio 2CC (1206 AM) and ABC Grandstand (666 ABC AM).
Have any pre match predictions of your own? Let us know in the comments below.
