Rangers hunting for Risdon upset
RUGBY UNION: Toowoomba Rangers plan to use momentum and their underdog label as motivation when they search for an upset victory over Dalby in today’s Wagners Risdon Cup preliminary final.
Rangers and the Wheatmen meet at John Ritter Oval this afternoon for a place alongside Goondiwindi in next Saturday’s grand final at Clive Berghofer Stadium.
Dalby and Goondiwindi have been freely tipped as probable grand final opponents since round one of the competition.
But Rangers get the chance for a final say on the matter when they look to maintain their winning finals’ run today.
Rangers have survived knock-out finals’ matches with a 43-19 victory over Condamine and a 32-31 over favourites USQ last Saturday.
The Wheatmen followed a 38-8 win over Uni in week one of the play-offs with a nail-biting 14-13 loss last Saturday to Goondiwindi at Riddles Oval.
Rangers are set to name close to their best possible 2018 team for today’s match following an injury-hampered season.
Their line-up will include the return of captain Fraser Donaldson to the bench.
Rangers’ coach Tom Crockett said the size of his team’s task today is obvious, but fate remained in its own hands.
“Dalby are a good side who consistently play well each week,” Crockett said.
“No-one expected us to get this far, but when you look at it we have got better and better as the season went on.
“I still thought we could have been a little more clinical last week against Uni which has left us with a few areas to work on.
“To beat Dalby we need to be good with the ball and to be patient.
“But we plan to go out and enjoy the moment of finals football with the chance of getting through to a grand final.”
Dalby coach Nathan Bradley is paying due respect to the winning form of Rangers.
“They have been able to finally put the same team out on the park for consecutive weeks and have been playing consistently,” Bradley told the Dalby Herald.
“We want to win the competition and we will need to play a different style of rugby against Rangers.”