U14 Raiders show fight



Tuesday 13 November 2012

U14 Raiders show fight

Last Friday the Under 14 Raiders headed down to Mann Street in Cairns to take on Barron and see if the could make it back to back wins.

The game started out at a frantic pace and was played between the two 22 metre lines. The Raiders were first to be put under pressure but with some strong tackling and cover defence by Quinlyn Cannon, the Raiders managed to hang on.

But a few missed tackles out wide saw Barron score first. Baron then went on the charge and were making inroads in the Raiders' defence which saw two penalties given away for dangerous tackles - one which saw Kienan Grogan spend time in the sin bin.

This only fired up Barron and they went on to put another five points on the board. When the Raiders got back to their full complement they started getting more ball and this saw the backs make yards up the field.

A great pass saw Cannon go over for the first points but the score at half time saw Barron take a 10 to 7 points lead.

The coach at the half made some positional changes which made an impact on the team with Dean McCarthy at halfback making sniping runs which saw some great pick and drives and metres gained by the forward pack.

With these easy metres Cannon got over again to put the Raiders in front. This game wasn't over for Barron and they tried their hand at putting a few moves on, but it was great outside defence by Tom Henley and Aaron Dunwell which kept the Barron attack at bay.

A suspect penalty saw Barron take a quick tap which caught the Raiders' defence napping and score.

The score was 15 - 12 in Barron's favour with seven minutes left, but the Raiders dug deep and with Grogan finding easy yards up the middle it wasn't long until he and Cannon combined in a 70 metre effort to see Cannon out-run the cover defence and score in the corner and put the Raiders in front.

To make it a bit harder for Barron, Grogan kicked the conversion from the sideline. The Raiders then had two minutes to hang on to win in which they did, but they gave the coach a scare with some silly peanalites.

The final score was 19 - 15 to the Raiders.

The players that were standouts for the Raiders were the forward pack, Quilynn Cannon and Kienan Grogan. But it was the front rower Doug Parkes who took out the Port Putt Putt Man of the Match.

The coaching staff were very happy with how the boys came from behind and how they regained their composure after the first 15 minutes of the match.

This week will see the Raiders at home on Friday to see if they can make it three in a row.