Raiders confident about NRL finals surge
Aug 7, 2017 - 4:48 AM Canberra believe their season has reached a turning point as they attempt to go on a remarkable winning run to propel them into the NRL's top eight.The Raiders beat reigning premiers Cronulla last weekend to notch back-to-back victories for the first time since May.
But they'll need to extend that streak to six to have any chance of playing finals, with a trip to New Zealand to face the fumbling Warriors on Sunday their next assignment.
"It's just taken a little while to get that confidence back in our game and now we've got it, we'll be hard to stop," prop Shannon Boyd said.
Boyd and fellow front-rower Junior Paulo were superb against the Sharks, running for 113 and 205 metres respectively.
He said a repeat performance from the Raiders forwards will be crucial to claiming victory against a big Warriors pack.
"They're big and they're pretty hard to stop so we'll have to go there with an aggressive attitude and try and get on top of their big boys early," Boyd said.
Still two games outside the eight, the Raiders will need to win at Mt Smart Stadium, as well as home matches against Penrith and Newcastle before a last-round trip to Melbourne, to play finals.
But if they can get on a roll, forward Luke Bateman believes teams will fear facing them in an elimination final.
"If we make it into the finals there's not going to be any teams that are going to want to play us when we get there," Bateman said.
"It was a massive turning point on the weekend towards playing finals footy."
The Raiders have won three of their last four in stark contrast to the Warriors, who are out of the hunt on the back of five straight losses.
Despite the form, it's a dangerous game for the Raiders, who haven't won in Auckland since 2012.
"I never like coming up against a team that's losing," Bateman said.
"They've got a really big team. When you've got blokes who are fired up and running hard it's never a good time."
Source: AAP
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