Roar Guru
The Canberra Raiders will need to fire on all cylinders tonight if they are to stop a red-hot Sydney Roosters outfit at home. Join us for live scores and commentary from 6.30pm AEST.
Fresh from a 50-0 victory over the hapless Eels on Monday night, the Roosters are already reaping big dividends from their three marquee signings.
Michael Jennings, James Maloney and Sonny Bill Williams were all superb against Parramatta and will fancy their chances of wreaking havoc against a Raiders outfit that is very suspect defensively.
Despite their dominant performance against the Eels however, the Roosters will need to be braced for a far tougher encounter against Canberra away from home.
The Raiders have only played the one home game this season and it resulted in a victory against a Dragons side that played very well last week against Cronulla.
Canberra should be primed for a big performance against the Roosters given that anything less than their best will most likely see them succumb to defeat.
Prediction
The result of tonight’s contest will largely hinge on which Raiders side turns up tonight.
Canberra has been very poor away from home this season, losing all three matches they have played outside the nation’s capital.
The Raiders though are a different beast in Canberra and should offer the Roosters a bigger test than the one they experienced against Parramatta.
Reece Robinson, Jarrod Croker, Sam Williams and Josh McCrone are all very talented footballers and will cause Sydney’s defence problems if Canberra’s big pack can play to its potential.
If the Raiders fail to show up, the Roosters have shown enough to suggest that they will put the home team to the sword.
Jennings, Williams, Maloney, Pearce, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Shaun Kenny-Dowall are all capable of tearing Canberra apart on the edges.
Williams in particular is beginning to cause constant havoc with his offloads and needs to be kept under wraps if the Raiders are a chance of blunting the Roosters attack.
Canberra will also need to keep an eye on forward Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. The New Zealand international is having a great season and invariably puts the Roosters on the front foot with his damaging charges.
With both sides blessed with attacking talent, this contest has the potential to be a high scoring encounter.
On form however, the Roosters look the more likely to score the most points tonight.
Roosters by 8.