The Parramatta Eels take on the Canberra Raiders at GIO Stadium on Saturday 14 April in Round Six of the competition.
The Blue & Gold will be looking to get their first win of the season and for the clash, Blue & Gold Head Coach Brad Arthur has made a handful of changes to his line up that suffered a 12-6 defeat to the Penrith Panthers last week.
Clint Gutherson returns from an ACL injury named at fullback whilst Bevan French returns from an injury on the wing in place of Josh Hoffman.
A reshuffled forward pack sees Peni Terepo called into the starting front row alongside Tim Mannah whilst Tony Williams also retains his spot in the backrow alongside Manu Ma'u. Eels lock Nathan Brown has been ruled out with injury seeing Tepai Moeroa named at lock.
Beau Scott, Kenny Edwards, Daniel Alvaro and Kane Evans (who returns from injury) have been named on the bench with Will Smith, David Gower, Suaia Matagi and Josh Hoffman as the reserves.
The Canberra Raiders secured their first win of the season last week, with a 26-10 victory over the Bulldogs at GIO Stadium.
For the clash, Head Coach Ricky Stuart has named Jack Wighton at fullback, who missed last week’s game following the birth of his second child, with Nick Cotric returning to the wing in place of Michael Oldfield.
Blake Austin returns to the halves with Sam Williams ruled out with injury, shifting Aidan Sezer to halfback.
Josh Papalii returns after a stint in the Intrust Super Premiership NSW competition named on the bench.
Historically, the Eels hold a strong head to head advantage however the green machine have a dominant 16 wins from 20 games in the nation’s capital.
Kick off at GIO Stadium is at 7:30pm.
Match Details: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels, GIO Stadium, Saturday 14 April, kick off at 7:30pm.
Televised: Live on Fox League
Live Radio: 2GB, ABC
Head-to-head: Played 55; Eels 29 wins, Raiders 26 wins
Matches at venue: Played 20; Raiders 16 wins, Eels 4 wins
2017 results: Raiders won 30-18 at GIO Stadium in round 5 and 22-16 at ANZ Stadium in round 11
Points per game: Raiders 23.4 (4th); Eels 8.8 (16th)
Points conceded per game: Raiders 24.4 (11th); Eels 26.8 (15th)
Canberra Raiders squad: 1 Jack Wighton, 2 Nick Cotric, 3 Jarrod Croker (c), 4 Joseph Leilua, 5 Jordan Rapana, 6 Blake Austin, 7 Aiden Sezer, 8 Iosia Soliola, 9 Siliva Havili, 10 Junior Paulo, 11 Joseph Tapine, 12 Elliott Whitehead, 13 Luke Bateman
Interchange: 14 Ata Hingano, 15 Shannon Boyd, 16 Josh Papalii, 17 Dunamis Lui 18 Liam Knight, 19 Michael Oldfield, 20 Brad Abbey, 21 Jack Murchie
Parramatta Eels squad: 1 Clint Gutherson, 2 George Jennings, 3 Michael Jennings, 4 Kirisome Auva'a, 5 Bevan French, 6 Corey Norman, 7 Mitchell Moses, 8 Peni Terepo, 9 Kaysa Pritchard, 10 Tim Mannah (c), 11 Manu Ma'u, 17 Tony Williams, 13 Tepai Moeroa
Interchange: 14 Beau Scott, 15 Kenny Edwards, 16 Daniel Alvaro, Kane Evans 18 Will Smith, 19 David Gower, 20 Suaia Matagi, 21 Josh Hoffman
Match Offiicals: Referee: Matt Cecchin & Phil Henderson; Touch Judges: Michael Wise & Drew Oultram; Review Officials: Ashley Klein & Ben Galea
