The North Harbour Rays will host the Perth Spirit at Brookvale Oval, Manly in their Round 5 clash of the National Rugby Championship. Join The Roar from 5:15pm (AEST) for live scores and commentary.
Perth Spirit will have come out of last week’s match against competition front runners Melbourne Rising rueing missed opportunities but also confident that they can hold it with the competitions best.
Consequently, Perth will be looking to build on a positive first 15 minutes that saw the side outperform Rising.
There has also been a number of changes in the Perth camp this week. Prop Joe Savage will step in as captain, Richard Hardwick will move to the blindside flank with Kane Koteka elevated to openside flanker.
The North Harbour Rays are in a similar position to Perth.
Sitting at second last in the table the side will be demanding a clinical performance boost confidence and stop naysayers coming into the business end of the short season.
Losses to Brisbane City, the Rams and Melbourne will have them desperate in this one, and this is a game they can certainly win.
Losing Matt Hodgson can’t have helped, of course, but the form of fly-half Zac Holmes will encourage supporters. Matt Lucas again impressed last week and has subsequently retained his spot over the skilled Josh Holmes.
Despite these strong individual performances it is critical that the side comes together as one unit if they are to become competitive in this new competition.
Manly will look to their hulking captain Greg Peterson to give some much needed grunt to the forward pack – and if the predominately Manly Marlins comprised pack can do so they should be able to give attacking threats Cam Crawford, and the like, purchase on this game.
With neither Perth nor North Harbour particularly impressive so far this competition, it will be interesting one to watch. It’s a twilight fixture at Brookvale Oval, so should be a great one to watch between two evenly matched sides.
Tip: Perth by 10
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Mate am stunned by those numbers. Spent the firsg half on the hill then the 2nd in the stands behind the posts and tried to figure out how many had turned up and generously gave it 1000 ppl. Twice as many? Hmmmm, ok then (not at the zame time maybe ;) Cracking game though.
Yes I made them haha
Rugby stu
Guest
Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T27pt7agX7I
It had all the right conditions for a bigger crowd, sunny, family friendly time and coming off a win I would have thought 2.5 to 3k might have turned up but when competing with a NRL game (Manly as well) you cant complain about 2000. The Rays manager and owners seemed to be happy with the crowd when I was speaking to the after the game
Definitely Sam Ward with his hat trick and all round super performance, I also enjoyed watching Harry Bergelin, Dillyn Leyds and Ammon Matuauto with his 2 tries
RobC
Roar Guru
Thanks Vinnie. Didnt get to stay on with you. Sounds like a pretty good game Who was your MOTM?
No worries, I was doing the Rays commentary on facebook so decided just to do both with a little more info for my fellow Roarers
Rays Youtube will be posting Sam Wards tries and interview tomorrow morning, he was superb. Hamish Angus was kicking at 50% during practise... Good on him to nail 100% during the game with a couple of great kicks from the sideline
Simon Bedard
Roar Pro
Great game. Good to see the rays get up. Fantastic effort by Sam Ward. Also some great kicks from the sideline to help the rays win. Love it.
stu
Guest
The last home game was a wet one. Would have thought greater than 2000.I didn't think they counted the kids?
just over 2000, more than there last home game
Did you hit refresh?
G_beard
Guest
Thank you for the commentary
Official crowd: 2,078 at Brookvale Oval Thanks for tuning in everyone, sorry about the livestream malfunction
Full time Rays have won 32-29 over Spirit
Time is up, Spirit have a scrum 5m out from there own line. Not over til the fat lady sings but they will need a magical play to score from here
Dave Feltscheer finds touch 5m out from Spirits line, 1 minute to go Perth will have to go 80 metres to win
Spirit with a half break, Rays counter and win the penalty, 4 minutes to go. Line out to Rays 40 metres out
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Dunno if Vinnie still around. Rays just scored a try, that's 32~29 rays with 5 to go.
Rays with a 5m attacking scrum after being held up. 6 minutes to go