With the luxury of highly talented and skilled players predominantly from South America, coupled with an adept blend of local players, it helped transform the Raiders into a respected team and they were not treated lightly by the other teams competing for the Rainforestation Cup.

On Saturday at Stan Williams Park, it will be a mighty test for the Raiders who failed to beat the Bulls in the regular season. They lost 22-19 in the opening match of the season and then 37-7 in the final round. Both were away matches.

The Raiders will be strengthened with the return of Jack Murday, who will play eighthman or flank, and the outside chance lock Matt Mallard will be available.

“Murday will be back 100 per cent. He will play flanker or No.8 depending on his fitness and the availability of others.

“As for Mallard, I won’t know until tomorrow if he is available due to work commitments. With regards to the injured players, I will assess them during the week and give them every chance to be out on the field. The final squad of 23 won’t be named until Thursday or Friday,” said Raiders coach Travis Gooch.

Beaten by clearly the strongest team in the competition, the Mariners crossed over on six occasions, three in each half. Three tries were converted. Raiders’ sole points came from a penalty by fullback Ethan Hoffman.

There were both positives and negatives to take from this game which will be elements to work on at training this week.

Although conceding six tries, the Mariners could have scored more but for the Raiders’ dogged defence, an area that will be critical against the Bulls.

However, there were areas which need work and you can be rest assured coach Gooch is aware of them.

They need to address why they did not contest the lineouts when it was Mariners ball; hooker Dylan Leahy missed his target with regularity at the lineouts and the Raiders lost key possession; Chase Hay needs to play on the right wing: he looked awkward and struggled on the left; flyhalf Nicolas La Ferrera needs to play a pivotal role and ensure his backs cross the advantage line; and the question of applying scoreboard pressure once again reared its ugly head.

Captain Dylan Leahy must not forget this is a semi-final and if there is an opportunity to score points from penalties in goalable positions, he needs to use that option. He should follow the example of Crusaders lock and captain Sam Whitelock, who capitalised on every goalable opportunity in the Super Rugby final against the Jaguares from Argentina winning 19-3 from four penalties and a converted try.