Dyldam Parramatta Eels half Clint Gutherson says the Blue and Gold will enter their Round 24 clash against the Canberra Raiders will plenty of confidence, believing they can come away with the two points against the in-form Top Four side.
After suffering a 38-16 defeat to the Brisbane Broncos last week, Gutherson believes the Blue and Gold have learnt plenty from last week’s second half performance and that they still have what it takes to topple the top sides.
“They have been playing some good footy over the last couple of months and they are probably a bit of a threat to some of the top teams. As I said a couple of weeks ago, we are trying to knock a few teams off and rumble the top eight and we will try and do that again and I think we will be able to get them this week,” Gutherson said.
“We are very confident. We had a good first half against the Broncos, and as everyone knows, they blew us out in the second half and we went away from what we needed to do, but if we stick to what we did in that first half against Canberra, we will be there in the 80th minute and hopefully get the win.” He added.
“It was a bit of a spray [from Head Coach Brad Arthur], but you cop that if you leak 38 points in a game so we are raring to make up for it this week.
The Eels came away 36-6 victors earlier in the year when these two sides clashed, however Gutherson knows that the two sides that took the field in Round 6 are fairly different and the Raiders will be entering this clash with plenty of momentum.
However he remains confident and excited about taking on the Raiders at home and coming up against former teammate Junior Paulo.
“We have gained a few players, lost a fair few players so it will be a fairly different game, but as I said, they are in some fine form at the moment and we will go out and do our best to try and beat them,” Gutherson said.
“It does hurt but Junior had to do what he had to do for his family and his career. It’s good to see him playing well, it looks like he has gotten bigger down there so it’s probably not a good thing for our defence, but it’s good to see him playing well.” He added.
“I am sure there will be a bit of banter around but we will be ready to go on Sunday.”
And with just a few weeks remaining in the season, Gutherson hopes to continue to improve and learn in his unfamiliar position of five-eighth.
The natural outside back has filled in the halves alongside Jeff Robson over the last few weeks however he is hoping to come away with a few more wins to end the season.
“It’s a learning curve for me. I have done few things wrong and a few things right but I am just trying to do my best possible and help the team out as much as possible,” Gutherson said.
“I will keep working on the trade and hopefully by the end of the year, help them out to a couple of wins.”
The Eels kick off against the Raiders on Sunday 21 August and Canberra’s GIO Stadium, kick off at 2pm.
