The Whitsunday Raiders held a night of rugby on Friday 2nd June, this saw the start of the 2nd round for the MRU senior men against Bowen, as well as a long-awaited game for the senior women’s team.
It also incorporated the 2nd round of the annual Eclipse Financial Services Cup and the very loyal Raiders sponsors night.
With a growing crowd the senior women kicked off the night with a game of 10’s against a newly formed Bowen women’s team, this was a bit of a tussle between the women, with the Whitsunday team finally coming away with a close 12-5 victory.
With the grandstand full and plenty of voices heard across the field, the main game kicked off to start what turned out to be a hard task for both sides.
Dylan Hoffmann got a small break in the defence and scooted through after 7 minutes to plant the ball under the posts, 7-nil raiders.
Nearly half an hour had passed when the Bowen forwards made their mark across the white line, 7-5 Raiders.
Neither team were going to make it easy to get points and at half time the score was still 7-5.
The first 10 minutes of the second half saw the score move to 14-12 Raiders, with great defence and the Raiders backs attacking the Bowen defensive line, the ball was intercepted and saw Bowen run the length of the field to put them in front 19 -14.
This seemed to get the Raiders back into their game plan and bring their energy levels up a notch and saw them run in another 3 tries before the final whistle, score Raiders 35, Bowen 19.
Best on field for the Raiders were Connor Spence 1pt, Manaia Ngakaunui-Hauiti 2pts, Aden Spence 3pts.
A fantastic start to Round 2
