Tuggeranong Bushrangers (6) v West Belconnen Warriors (2) on Saturday at 3:00pm at Greenway
West Belconnen will by vying for their fifth win in a row, whilst Tuggeranong will be looking to avoid their fifth consecutive defeat when these two combatants face off on Saturday afternoon at Greenway.
The Warriors have not tasted defeat since Round 4 and will head into the match with plenty of confidence.
“We’re travelling along nicely at the moment and we’re all confident in our ability as a football side,” winger Joe Cramp said.
“Having said that though, if we lose this weekend a lot of our hard work will come undone so we’ve got to be wary of Tuggeranong, they’re a good side.”
There won’t be any hint of West Belconnen taking Tuggeranong lightly given that the Bushrangers defeated them 38-18 in Round Three.
“We haven’t been getting the results lately and that’s because we haven’t been playing for the full 80 minutes,” Brad Robertson said.
“We can put 20 points on in 40 minutes but it counts for little when we can’t play for the entire game.
“West Belconnen are a tough team this year but we can head into the match with confidence knowing that we’ve beaten them earlier in the year.”
The Warriors will be without three Country Origin representatives; whilst the Bushrangers will be without their Captain and key player Michael Brophy.
Gungahlin Bulls (5) v Goulburn Workers Bulldogs (3) on Saturday at 3:00pm at Gungahlin Enclosed Oval
Gungahlin will look to keep pace with the rest of the semi-finals competitors when they take on Goulburn at home on Saturday.
The Bulls are currently four points outside of the top four and they don’t want to slip any further away according to Captain Josh Ayres.
“Our goal is to make the semi-finals this year and we don’t want to fall away from the top four at any stage,” he said.
Goulburn thrashed Gungahlin 50-26 earlier in the year with Junior Vatikani scoring four tries. He will no doubt be a heavily marked man by the Bulls this time around.
Belconnen United Scholars (8) v Queanbeyan Kangaroos (4) on Saturday at 3:00pm at Northbourne Oval
Despite Belconnen United’s standing on the TTM Canberra Raiders Cup ladder, Scholars-Roos clashes are always fiercely fought affairs given the two clubs recent rivalry.
The two sides battled it out in the 2012 decider with the Scholars reigning victorious 38-26 whilst just two years earlier the Roos got the better of their adversaries 41-16.
Queanbeyan defeated the Scholars in Round Three this year 36-18 with five-eighth Jordan Macey instrumental in the win.
Shutting him down will be a big focus point for the Scholars whilst the Roos forwards will need to lift in the absence of fearsome prop Matt Lewis who is sidelined with a broken jaw.
Lewis was heavily missed in the Roos’ loss to the Blues last week.
Queanbeyan Blues (1) v Woden Valley Rams (7) on Saturday at 3:00pm at Seiffert Oval
Woden will head into match against Queanbeyan in a confident frame of mind due to two factors.
The first is that they are fresh from an impressive victory over the Bushrangers last week and the second is that they pushed the Blues right until the 80th minute in Round Three, going down narrowly 28-22.
The Rams may be primed for an upset with gun Blues forward Levi Freeman absent due to Country representative duties. Freeman was a major factor in the Round Three victory scoring a decisive try.
Woden led 12-10 at half-time in that encounter however their inexperience was no match for the seasoned campaigners at Queanbeyan’s disposal.
Those younger players have improved with each week though and are now coming to terms with the consistency required of the TTM Canberra Raiders Cup.
This clash should make for an interesting contest despite the juxtaposition of where the two sides are placed on the ladder, as Woden has lost all bar one match this year by 10 points or less.
