Tallon Smith
The Queanbeyan Kangaroos have maintained their perfect record through two rounds of the Canberra Raiders Cup after emerging from Walker Park with a scrappy 20-12 win over the Yass Magpies on Saturday afternoon.
Troy Whiley opened the scoring for the Roos, before Yass hit back through Cody Bell, who rose above a pack and marked a Caleb Piper kick Aussie rules-style to race in and level the game at 6-all.
The Roos responded well to the challenge, opening up an 18-6 half time lead through tries to Jesse Dent and Michael Gordon, before withstanding a late charge from the Magpies to secure their second victory to start the year.
Kangaroos coach and BarTV fan-voted man of the match Adam Quinlan said that despite a poor completion rate in the second half, he was happy to emerge with a character building victory.
“[It was] good to get the two points, it’s always a tough place to go, all the way out to Yass,” he said.
“They’re a much improved side this season to what they were last year, and coming off a victory in round one against West Belconnen they were high on confidence, so we knew it was going to be a tough ask.
“We weren’t overly happy with how we played, [it was a] slow sort of scrappy start and we sort of found our groove a little bit, managed to score a few tries going into half time, and then the second half, we just couldn’t complete.
“I think we completed at 43 percent in the second half and they had a couple of sin bins, we had a sin bin.
“It probably wasn’t the best spectacle to watch, but I guess one positive to take out of it is we got the two points.”
The hard-fought victory follows a strong round one performance against Tuggeranong, with the Roos again getting the better of the Bushrangers 30-16 in a rematch of last year’s preliminary final.
Despite a less polished outing against Yass, Quinlan said that he was pleased to collect the full offering of premiership points leading into the Anzac weekend bye.
“I was really happy with the round one victory, we started slow in that game and did a lot of defending in the first half, and then [in the] second half managed to turn it around and put on some points,” he said.
“Going into this season we knew we had two games going into a week off for the Anzac weekend, and the goal was to get the two wins.
“We were confident that we could do that, but we had to play well, and fortunately enough we’ve been able to do that.”
Next up for the last year’s runners-up is a grand final rematch and local derby against defending premiers Queanbeyan Blues at Seiffert Oval on May 2.
When asked about what he would like to see from the Roos as the main stretch of the season approaches, Quinlan said his focus is on the new-look side continuing to improve each week.
“We’re just trying to build, it’s only early in the season and it’s a long season, we’ve just got to keep trying to improve,” he said.
“We’ve lost a few key players from last season, so there’s still people in new positions and finding their feet, but it’s just very pleasing that we’ve got the two wins so far.”
Looking at other results around the grounds in the Canberra Raiders Cup over the weekend, the Belconnen United Sharks also remain undefeated after a 38-18 win over Tuggeranong at NSWRL HQ Bruce.
The result follows the Sharks’ opening round win over defending premiers Queanbeyan Blues, while for the Bushrangers, the loss leaves them winless after two rounds.
Meanwhile, the Blues bounced back following that opening round loss with a 38-22 win over the Goulburn City Bulldogs at Seiffert Oval.
Centre Jamie Mazzarol-Kotz crossed for three of the Queanbeyan side’s seven tries on the way to the 16-point win, with both sides now sitting at 1-1 heading into the bye after Goulburn’s win over Gungahlin in round one.
The final game of the weekend on Sunday saw the Woden Valley Rams consign the West Belconnen Warriors to an 0-2 start with a 26-14 win at Raiders Belconnen.
George Tooke Shield
The Crookwell Green Devils maintained their perfect start under coach Brian Gray with a 32-10 win over the UC Stars at Raiders Belconnen on Saturday.
The Green Devils ran in five tries to one to cruise to a second victory following their 34-0 opening round victory against Boorowa.
In other results, North Canberra remains undefeated after two rounds following a 34-14 win over Boorowa, while Harden moved to 2-0 with a 38-0 win over Snowy River, and defending premiers Bungendore Tigers secured their first points of the season with a 42-20 triumph against Googong.
