National Rugby Championship: Round 7 preview, team lists

After a record-breaking round of the NRC last week, thanks in large part to a Queensland derby, played on a Sunday afternoon, that drove in a crowd of over 5000, we’re back an on the finals trail.

The pleasing thing about the last week was the fact that it was finally ‘national’ with 11,375 people attending four games of rugby in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Perth.

As to the finals, the race for the top four is well and truly heating up.

Melbourne Rising are in. Lock them in Eddy.

The next two, on 16 points, are Brisbane City and NSW Country. But while City are on the up, and should welcome flyhalf Quade Cooper to the starting side, NSW Country haven’t won a game in three weeks, and need a win against the Sydney Stars this week.

The Rams, Spirit and Vikings are all poised to strike on 11 points, while the Rays would remain hopeful, on 10 points.

Canberra Vikings vs North Harbour Rays
Thu 2 Oct – 2:30pm
Viking Park
TV: Fox Sports

The Thursday night clash between the Vikings and the Rays may go a long way to deciding both sides’ hopes of playing in finals.

The first thing to be said is that there are tickets deals happening for this game. If you book online, you can score two adult tickets for $10, a real bargain. Similarly, you can also get a family ticket for two adults and two kids for $20. Cool!

With just three rounds to go, the Vikings have looked to the Super Rugby experience of Robbie Coleman, shifting him into the playmaking position. He has been playing at centre or wing for much of the tournament.

A last-start loss to the Melbourne Rising shouldn’t have the Vikings too concerned, as every team has fallen victim to that side this year. They’ll just need to pick up and start again.

“We need a complete, 80-minute performance against the Rays to get things back on track,” coach Dan McKellar said.

“The Rays have a tough draw last week and have shown through the last month or so that they are there until the final siren.

“We’ve had a good week here in Canberra so far, we’ve learned plenty from last Thursday and it’s time to put that into practice against the Rays.”

On the Rays’ side of things, big lock Ed Gower makes his return to the side that drew with the Greater Sydney Rams last week.

Scott Daruda has taken over admirably at flyhalf, and led them around the park nicely last week. Kotoni Ale will also be on the hunt for more tries. His two last week saw him take home Brett McKay’s worthy mention, and in a backline as stacked as the Rays, that’s no mean feat.

Teams:

UC Vikings
1. Jean-Pierre Smith
2. Lala Lam
3. Ruan Smith
4. Tom Staniforth
5. Jordan Smiler
6. Tim Cree

7. Jarrad Butler
8. Fotu Auelua
9. Joe Powell
10. Robbie Coleman
11. Drew Southwell
12. Rod Iona
13. Nigel Ah Wong
14. Jerome Niumata
15. Jesse Mogg

Replacements
16. Connal McInerney
17. Les Makin
18. Allan Alaalatoa
19. Rory Arnold
20. Rowan Perry
21. Michael Dowsett
22. Isaac Thompson
23. Matt Hawke

North Harbour Rays

15. David FELTSCHEER (Warringah)
14. Harry JONES (Warringah)
13. Malietoa HINGANO (Manly)
12. Brian SEFANAIA (Manly)
11. Sireli TAGICAKIBAU (Warringah)
10. Scott DARUDA (Manly)
9. Josh HOLMES (Warringah)
8. Sam WARD (Warringah)
7. Kotoni ALE (Manly)
6. Jack DEMPSEY (Gordon)
5. Greg PETERSON © (Manly)
4. Ed GOWER (Manly)
3. Mitch LEWIS (Manly)
2. Luke HOLMES (vc) (Warringah)
1. Nick FRASER (Gordon)

RESERVES:

16. Dave PORECKI (Manly)
17. Dane MARAKI (Manly)
18. Rory O’CONNOR (Manly)
19. Ryan MELROSE (Manly)
20. James CUNNINGHAM (Northern Suburbs)
21. Terry PRESTON (Gordon)
22. Hamish ANGUS (Warringah)
23. Tom MATTHEWS (Gordon)

TV: Fox Sports 2

Twitter: #CANvRAY

Tickets: Can be bought here.

The Roar’s live blog: Being on Foxtel, we’ll have it!

Greater Sydney Rams vs Brisbane City
Fri 3 Oct- 7:30pm
Pirtek Stadium

While much of the talk from last week’s match against Queensland Country was about the crowd and the returning Quade Cooper, the latter only played 20 minutes and the former wasn’t on the field (until after the game).

While much of the focus of Brisbane City’s game against Queensland Country was on the crowd and Quade Cooper, the latter only played 20 minutes and the former wasn’t on the field.

City were impressive, both at set piece time (Country were without Greg Holmes), and having Cooper back should be the icing on the cake in their march towards the finals.

Ahead of the Rams by five points on the table, they would expect to remain ahead after this weekend.

As for the Rams, it’s their time to stick up their hand for a finals spot. They’ve looked threatening at various times this season, and undoubtedly have one of the attacking weapons of the competition in Taqele Naiyaravoro.

But they haven’t been able to capitalise on opportunities when they’ve presented themselves. Their ladder position has suffered accordingly.

Losing winnable games now means they’re in a big scrap to make the finals against the other form team in the competition at the moment.

It’ll be a tussle, and the Rams should be helped by the fact they’re at home, but Brisbane City should show too much desire, and take another step towards securing their spot in the top four.

Teams:

1. Jed Gillespie
2. Peni Ravai
3. Guy Millar
4. Steve Mafi
5. Dylan Sigg
6. Hugh Perrett (C)
7. Chris Alcock
8. Pat Sio
9. Vasa Faleali’i
10. Ben Volavola
11. Tom Hill
12. Henry Taefu
13. Henry Seavula
14. Jarome MacKenzie
15. Ben Batger

REPLACEMENTS
16. Hugh Roach
17. Cameron Betham
18. Dave Lolohea (FR)
19. Marcus Carbone
20. Michael Kovacic
21. Mark Swanepoel
22. Jai Ayoub
23. Dane Chisholm

Stream: BarTV have been enlisted, so look forward to more powerful commentary from those lads.

Twitter: #RAMvBRI

Tickets: Here.

The Roar’s live blog:

Perth Spirit vs Queensland Country
Sat 4 Oct – 3:30pm
Rockingham Park

Perth Spirit must have wondered what has happened this season.

How they’ve only won two games after their 42-point shellacking of the Sydney Stars last weekend must make them wonder. They’ve clearly got a gifted lot, but a middle of the season collapse sees them on just 11 points after six rounds.

They would expect to win this week, though, against a Queensland Country team down on confidence and troops.

Greg Holmes is out, and last week showed what a difference one man could make in a scrummaging performance, and then the difference a good scrummaging performance can make in a game. While this NRC has been typified by tries and ball in play, it’s still essential to secure your own ball at scrum and lineout time.

Country will struggle to do that again this week, if their showing against City was anything to go by, and Spirit will fancy themselves to take this game comfortably.

Spirit coach David Wessels thinks they’re in a good place to get in done this week.

“We were obviously very pleased with our result against the Stars that came off the back of continued improvement in the effort and focus shown in our preparation and it was demonstrated in our effective game management,” he said.

“This week our focus is to back that up again and that will come from our attitude and decision-making on the field on Saturday afternoon.

“We got off to a bit of a slow start last week, letting in two early tries, but the commitment to turn that momentum and score nine consecutive tries was a credit to how hard this team work for each other.”

Teams:

Perth Spirit:
1. Joe Savage (Palmyra)
2. Robbie Abel (Cottesloe)
3. Tetera Faulkner (Wanneroo)
4. Sam Wykes (c) (Wests Scarborough)
5. Brent Murphy (Perth Bayswater)
6. Brynard Stander (Nedlands)
7. Kane Koteka (Wests Scarborough)
8. Al Rovira (Associates)
9. Ian Prior (Nedlands)
10. Zack Holmes (Associates)
11. Marcel Brache (Perth Bayswater)
12. Luke Burton (UWA)
13. Kyle Godwin (Associates)
14. Luke Morahan (Kalamunda)
15. Dane Haylett-Petty (Cottesloe)

Reserves
16. Harry Scoble (UWA)
17. Chris Heiberg (Perth Bayswater)
18. Oliver Hoskins (Cottesloe)
19. Corey Thomas (UWA)
20. Richard Hardwick (UWA)
21. Justin Turner (Associates)
22. Ammon Matuauto (Associates)
23. Christian Joubert (UWA)

Queensland Country:
1. Haydn Hirsimaki, 2. Ryan Freney, 3. Campbell Wakely, 4. Rubin Fuimaono, 5. Blake Enever, 6. Mitch King, 7. Jack de Guingand, 8. Ben Adams, 9. Sam Grasso, 10. Matt Brandon, 11. Giles Beveridge, 12. Sam Johnson, 13. Campbell Magnay, 14. Tom Pincus, 15. Jamie-Jerry Taulagi.

Reserves 16. Michael Parker, 17. Feao Fotuaika, 18. Andrew Parker, 19. Sam Fattal, 20. James Turner, 21. James Tuttle, 22. Herman Porter, 23. Pierce Fitzgerald

Stream: No stream this time, according to the Spirit.

Twitter: #PERvQLD

Tickets: Here.

The Roar’s live blog: No stream, so no live blog unfortunately.

Sydney Stars vs NSW Country
Mon 6 Oct – 3:00pm
Leichhardt Oval

NSW Country, as with many teams it would seem, should be targeting this game as a must win occasion. The Stars have just… not lived up to expectations at all this season, showing the standard of this competition.

Country, on the other hand, have a combative pack of forwards who will be ready to take on Will Skelton and his gang, in an effort to unleash their potent backline.

The Stars don’t have much to play for unfortunately, and though individuals will want to prove a point, it shouldn’t be enough to stop the Country side from cementing their spot in the top four.

Country should be fresh after the bye, and you’d think they’ll end up on 20 points after this match.

Stream: This game will be streamed! The guys at ClubTV are involved, so get watching.

Twitter: #SYDvEAG

Tickets: Here.

The Roar’s live blog: There’ll be a stream, so we’ll cover it.

NRC ladder after Round 5
Melbourne Rising 30
Brisbane City 16
NSW Country Eagles 15
Perth Spirit 11
Canberra Vikings 11
Greater Sydney Rams 11
North Harbour Rays 10
Queensland Country 6
Sydney Stars 2