[VIDEO] Sydney Stars vs North Harbour Rays highlights: NRC scores, blog

The final round of the National Rugby Championship kicks off with the Sydney Stars hosting the North Harbour Rays at Leichardt Oval. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:30pm (AEDT).

This game was in danger of becoming a dead rubber as of a week ago, but this changed thanks to some interesting results last weekend.

The North Harbour Rays head into the game with a chance at making the finals, albeit with the requirement of a bonus point win and other favourable results.

This may just add some spice to the game with the Sydney Stars chasing their maiden NRC victory to snuff out their cross town rival’s hopes.

The North Harbour Rays started the competition slowly, although they held their heads up in comfortable loss to Melbourne Rising in Round 1.

However back-to-back wins in Round 4 and Round 5 over both Queensland Country and the (now) fast finishing Perth Spirit, as well as consecutive draws with the Rams and Vikings showed that on their day they are ‘there or thereabouts’.

A 51-point loss to a buoyant Brisbane City last weekend has hurt their momentum and left them in the ‘mathematical chance only’ column.

Sam Ward, Matt Lucas, Greg Petterson and Mitch Lewis have been players to watch all year but also keep an eye out for the Holmes brothers and fullback David Feltscheer to add to head coach Geoff Townsend’s counter attacking game plan. Front rower Porecki has also added impetus late in the game.

Highlights in the Sydney Stars’ season are few and far between. Apart from their draw with the Canberra Vikings in Round 5, the Round 4 bye was the only other round not in the ‘L’ column.

There have been comments around this being a product of the Sydney club players being a step down in terms of fitness and skills from those teams with heavier Super squad player representation.

I think that it more speaks to the requirement for further cohesion between the individual clubs of Sydney University and Balmain given that a similar argument about club players could be made for a number of other sides that have not fared so poorly.

I expect this to be a great game of footy as the Stars look to finish the season with some pride and the Rays try to put themselves in a position capable of making the inaugural finals series.

I’m calling a close game until the 60 minute mark when the Rays will put the foot down and finish with the required bonus point and a 25-point victory.

Join us at The Roar from 7:30pm (AEST) to have your say and join in the live blog.