Canberra Raiders Cup Under 19s: Grand Final Preview

The young guns are set to fire their last shot as the Woden Valley Rams face the West Belconnen Warriors in our 2023 Canberra Raiders Cup Under 19s Grand Final. 

The Rams barged through minor premiers, Goulburn, in the major semifinal 50-10 to send them straight through to the decider.  

Woden did not skip a beat, showing plenty of strike power with hooker Ethan Alia scoring four, prop Mathias Petone Tomuli-Ah-Kuoi securing a hat-trick, and centre Joshua Petrovic crossing the line for a double. 

The Bulldogs had a chance to redeem themselves the following week, but fell short to an inform Warriors side who beat them 24-14. 

West Belconnen came out firing, scoring three unanswered tries in the first half. 

Goulburn started to make a second half comeback, getting over the line for three of their own and bringing the scores to 14-18 after missing two conversions. 

The Warriors were able to close the game out, scoring a try in the dying seconds and earning their spot in the Grand Final. 

Woden and West Belconnen now face off in the biggest game of the year, and as their previous matchup shows, there's not much that separates these two sides.

The last time they met in round 17, a mere four weeks ago, we saw a back and forth, try for try battle, finishing at 26-26. 

Get ready for another nail biter when these two sides meet again at Seiffert Oval on Sunday, kicking off at 10:45am. 

Rams lock Kaya Irfan says that it's up to himself and the rest of the boys upfront to break through the Warriors' strong defense to get the job done. 

"We have really good middles, and our edges are also good, so we have a lot of versatility throughout the park, but I reckon through the middle is our main strength," said Irfan.  

"Their defense has been good throughout the year, no ones been able to put too many points on them.

"I expect them to throw a lot at us and hopefully we can throw back." 

Warriors hooker and 2023 David Sharpe Medalist Jye Rushton believes the "heart" they play with will be the difference.  

"We definitely have heart over them, we definitely try a lot harder, especially coming into games not being the favorite a lot of the time, it's probably one of our biggest advantages," Rushton said. 

"We're so keen coming into this weekend, especially tying with them last time.

"Going into that game we thought we didn't have a shot but we came in and played well.

"We really haven't had a perfect game this year, so we're really looking to have that perfect game this weekend."