Trevor Jackson
THE Blue Lake Knights suffered their third loss of the 2023 Limestone Coast Rugby League season, with a 34-20 result against Warrnambool Raiders on Saturday.
The Knights made the trip across the border to face the Raiders at home and found the going tough from the outset.
The Knights ran in four tries – two in each half – and converted three of those, but could not prevent the Raiders from crossing their line.
The Raiders scored seven tries and while they converted just three of those, it was their dominance with the ball in hand which made the difference in the end.
Tries for the Knights came from Jope Mototabua with two, then one each to Livai Bulavou and Lloyd Pearce-Raisin, while Brent Dries kicked the three conversions.
Pearce-Raisin said it was a tough day, with several players missing,, which left no bench.
“We had a few Fiji boys who couldn’t play because of a Fijian day,” he said.
“It is pretty hard yakka without a bench but we did okay.
“We also missed Chris Driver with that punch through the middle.
“He takes a lot of hard carries, defends really well and is probably our best prop.”
The lack of personnel also had an upside, with other new players becoming more involved.
“To our credit we shared the workload pretty well,” Pearce-Raisin said.
“We got our backs to come in and do some work which was good.
“A lot of the new boys play in the back, so they are starting to work out their positioning, when to drop back and when to come up, when its their turn to take a run.
“They ask questions which is good and they are getting better each week.
“We also had two new Fijian boys play on the weekend – one scored a double and one scored a try.”
With the new players and the usual numbers back, next week should provide more of an idea where the side sits, although they face a tough Gundijtmara Bulls side back at Warrnambool.
However, with the improvement in the new players this season and the added strength, Pearce-Raisin is confident the side is not far away from the pack.
“We are not far away from a win,” he said.
“A lot of the other teams have good structure, while some of our boys come from Bordertown so its hard to get together to train.
“But I think once we are on we can beat anyone.”
