NSW Country Eagles coach Darren Coleman knows his side is up against it in today’s National Rugby Championship clash with competition leaders Melbourne Rising.
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The Eagles take on the Rising at Wade Park this afternoon and, despite having lost just one game from the opening four rounds to sit second, Coleman said his side will head in as underdogs.
“I’d think we would be,” Coleman said.
“They’ve had a very impressive start. I imagine if you look at any bookmaker’s odds we would be pretty long.
“They’re a very handy side.”
The Eagles overcame the Greater Sydney Rams (31-2), Queensland Country (37-13) and the North Harbour Rays (33-21) before losing out to Brisbane City (34-26), their first loss of the season last Sunday.
On the other hand, the unbeaten Rising have yet to look like losing a game, scoring bonus point wins over the North Harbour Rays (55-34), Sydney Stars (45-13), Brisbane City (79-18) and the Perth Spirit (44-24) to secure top spot.
While the Eagles boast plenty of Super Rugby experience, Melbourne coach Sean Hedger, a former Orange Emus player, has named a side containing 14 players who have played in the Super XV.
“I’m not so sure it’s about shutting them down as much as playing our brand of rugby,” Coleman said.
“We have some handy players too, and if we can get the ball and hold on to it we’ll be pretty hard to beat too.”
The Eagles’ mentor said a potentially huge Orange crowed could play a sizeable role in his team’s enthusiasm, and pleaded for the local community to head to Wade Park in droves.
“I think we’ve earned a big crowd with the start we’ve had,” he said.
“We haven’t really had that as yet, but that’s one big part of this concept, bringing really high quality football to the country.
“We’d really love to have a big, pro-country, parochial crowd following us [today].”
Kick-off is 3pm.
NSW COUNTRY EAGLES: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Will Weekes, 3 Jake Illnicki, 4 Cam Treloar (c), 5 Ben Matwijow, 6 Tala Gray, 7 Will Miller, 8 Ita Vaea, 9 Mick Snowden, 10 Sam Windsor, 11 Malakai Watene-Zelezniak, 12 Ed Stubbs, 13 Samu Wara, 14 John Grant, 15 Patrick Dellit; Bench: 16 Billy Johnston, 17 Ben Suisala, 18 Michael Aloaatoa, 19 Richard Stanford, 20 Pauli Tuala, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Apukaki Ma’afu, 23 Andrew Kellaway.
