Rangers, Emus get back to business
RUGBY UNION: Goondiwindi and Toowoomba Rangers have some unfinished business from their last Wagners Wellcamp Risdon Cup meeting and that is set to resume at Riddles Oval this afternoon.
The Emus and Rangers 2017 rivalry goes up another gear today when they meet in the Risdon Cup qualifying semi-final with the winner to meet Dalby next week for a place in this year’s decider
Today’s losing team is relegated to knock-out football against the winner of today’s elimination semi featuring Toowoomba Bears and Condamine.
Goondiwindi and Rangers finished locked at 17-all in their last fixture round clash at Riddles Oval on July 15.
Three rounds have passed since that meeting with both teams coming into today’s game on unbeaten runs.
Rangers last week accounted for Condamine 47-10 while the Emus continued their finals’ push with a 61-14 win over USQ.
Rangers have lost exciting fullback Lachie Sperling to injury for today’s game but welcome back key players Brad Rigby, Matt Lyons and Ben Loxley who all missed last week’s victory.
Coach Sam Hannant is looking to Rangers’ depth of talent to rise to today’s challenge.
“Lachie won’t play which is disappointing given the impact he’s had for us this season,” Hannant said.
“But Tom Caskey will move to fullback and Ben Loxley comes into outside centre for us.
“We are happy how we’ve prepared for this game with a solid win over Condamine last week and nobody needs any extra motivation to play Gundy at Gundy.”
Club president Doug McDougall said the Emus are looking to peak for the finals’ series after a lengthy season interspersed with the loss of players to rep teams.
“This is our second or third week back at full strength and we’re looking forward to playing some of our best football during the finals,” McDougall said.
RUGBY UNION: Toowoomba Bears will be out to continue their season supremacy over Condamine when they face off in today’s Wagners Wellcamp Risdon Cup elimination semi-final at Riddles Oval.
Bears have had the wood on Condamine so far this season, posting 44-7 and 29-22 fixture-round wins over the Cods.
But a “disappointing” 32-17 home defeat last Saturday to Dalby and the loss of industrious halfback Will Jackson for the season has Bears’ co-coach Bryan Battersby second-guessing his team’s chances today.
“We should beat Condamine and I’m confident we can,” said Battersby who has helped direct the Bears into this season’s finals series with co-coach Russell Jackson.
“But I thought we should have done better last week against Dalby when we just didn’t seem to turn up for the first half.
“We can’t afford to do that tomorrow against the Cods.
“We have beaten them both times this season.
“But we haven’t faced them yet with their full contingent of Fijian players and that will be a challenge for us tomorrow.”
Cods’ captain Roger Geldard said his team is looking for a quick turn-around on its 47-10 loss last week to Rangers.
“We’re very excited about playing finals football in what’s been a big season for our club,” Geldard said.
“We’ve gone down to Bears in both games this year and we’re very wary of what they offer.
“But we weren’t happy with either of those performances and its a
matter of discipline and sticking better to our game plan to turn that around and keep our season alive.”