Match Centre

Round 18: Dragons v Raiders preview

Sinking Saints take on injury-ravaged Raiders

The St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Canberra Raiders will battle it out on Saturday afternoon at WIN Stadium, with the joint-venture's finals hopes now all but over. Canberra on the other hand, face an uphill battle for a top four position after last week's loss to the Roosters, but still remain hopeful. Still, individuals within the Dragons' playing group still have plenty to fight for, with a chance to impress incoming coach Anthony Griffin late in the season. It will be interesting to see how these sides respond to round 17 losses and the match could potentially have a bearing on the make-up of the top four come finals time. 

Dragons interim coach Dean Young has made a few changes for this game. Cody Ramsey will make his NRL debut on the wing in place of Mikaele Ravalawa. Ramsey impressed early in the year at the Peth Nines tournament. Kaide Ellis will start for the first time as a Dragon at prop, in place of Blake Lawrie who drops back to the bench. Paul Vaughan is back from suspension and starts in the other prop forward position, pushing Josh Kerr back to the bench as well.  

In the Raiders team news, Jordan Rapana has been moved into the centres, with Nick Cotric moved back to the wing. Josh Papalii has been named and will look to shake a shoulder injury suffered in the first half of last week's loss to the Roosters. 

Last meeting: Round 8 2020 - Raiders 22 Dragons 16

Who to watch: The Dragons were really poor in their last showing and they will need to improve significantly to beat the Raiders. Ben Hunt's kicking game will be important if they are to put a stamp on this game at all. When he first shifted to the dummy-half position, his kicking game had teams turning around and chasing, but that has gone missing and has been more rare to see in recent weeks. If he can get the Raiders coming out of their own end and forcing errors, then the Saints will be an outside chance.  

For the Raiders, Jack Wighton will have to continue to stand up as he recently as in a team with their fair share of injuries. The Dragons defence has been extremely flimsy and at times not first-grade standard. Look for Wighton to exploit this with his running game close to the line and potentially go over for a try or two.

The favourite: The Raiders are clear favourites to win this one.

My tip: The Dragons have been nothing short of terrible the last few weeks. Their defence has been soft and their big-money players aren't standing up and pulling their weight. Young guns Jacob Host and Jackson Ford can only do so much with such little help from the senior players within the group. If they don't stand up, this game could ugly for the Dragons with the likes of Jack Wighton picking apart their defence. Raiders by 16.