Canberra captain Terry Campese says he’ll aim to intentionally kick the ball dead during Friday night’s NRL clash against South Sydney to nullify the impact of destructive fullback Greg Inglis.
With wet weather forecasted for the match at ANZ Stadium, Campese said he’ll be aiming to play down the other end of the field.
But he admits that poses its problems.
Inglis and fellow State of Origin back Nathan Merritt are set to return the majority of those kicks for the table-topping Rabbitohs.
“In the wet, it does come down to a kicking game,” he said.
“So we’ll be kicking early and looking to kick the ball away from Greg Inglis. Try and hit the sidelines or even kick it dead to try and stop him returning the ball.
“Kicking the ball dead or out to touch will slow the game down and keep the ball down in their territory.”
Despite Merritt having a debut Origin night to forget with the Blues, Campese said his side wouldn’t attempt to exploit the winger’s defence.
“He’s been in tremendous form for Souths. Take nothing out of last night; he’ll be back to his best tomorrow night,” Campese said.
The eighth-placed Raiders will struggle to match the big Souths pack without representative prop Brett White, who will be on the sidelines for up to three weeks with a fracture to his eye-socket.
Prop David Shillington has been recalled to the starting side in White’s absence, with Sam Mataora to make his NRL debut off the bench and Josh Papalii expected to back up from State of Origin.
But the biggest problem for the Raiders will be overcoming their abysmal away record.
They’ve recorded just the one win (Storm) in eight games on the road this year.
“But we always seem to step up against the big teams and there’s no bigger team than Souths at the moment,” Campese said.
Souths will have four players backing up from Wednesday night’s State of Origin, with second-rowers Chris McQueen and Ben Te’o named to start.
“Hopefully they’re a little bit tired going into tomorrow night’s game,” Campese said.
“(But) if I was playing on Wednesday I think I’d rather the first game on the weekend. You don’t get sore until the Saturday or Sunday. They’ll be riding high the guys that played for Queensland.”
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