They may have ripped it off from the football team of Iceland (and when the southerly comes from Kosciuszko, GIO Stadium can feel like a graveyard in a country founded by Vikings in 800AD) but Canberra’s Viking clap is among the coolest things in rugby league.
All those rugged-up locals, overhead-clapping in unison, before the players emerge to the thundering of a mighty, forty-foot horn. Rugby league can be homogenous around the edges. But the Viking clap is a point of difference, and top stuff.
Canberra Raiders did not produce top stuff in their 24-16 loss to Cronulla Sharks on Sunday; indeed they turned out a second-half that was almost offensive in its lack of effect. It was effete. The Raiders were out there, playing, that much was certain. There were Canberra players in green jumpers, occupying positions. But, second half, with the wind, leading by eight, they stopped playing. They did not compete. There was no threat.
The Raiders lost Blake Austin just before half-time and with him, apparently, the will to win. Their big forwards stopped punching holes. Their big outside backs didn’t run the ball hard. They stopped passing to each other. There were no offloads. There was … nothing. And an under-strength Sharks XVII got home with a gritty and deserved eight-point win.
The Raiders lacked leadership. Halfback Aiden Sezar appears unable to win games on the back of his own barking nous. Captain Jarrod Croker appears unable to inspire enough fear in his troops. Their beating heart is Elliot Whitehead, who goes and goes. But he is but one man. And his team-mates didn’t run with him.
The Sharks were magnificently served by their captain, Andrew Fifita, who played 80 minutes and ripped off things a 120 kilo man has little right to. Six minutes to play he almost won the game, only a loose carry denying the Sutherland Shireman.
It didn’t matter. With seconds to go James Segeyaro – who a minute before had pulled off the funniest-play-of-the-season when he tried to milk a penalty but missed hitting an opponent with a pass from one metre away – tore up field and found his supersonic fullback, Valentine Holmes, who burned them all, and won a famous victory for Cronulla.
Consider: The Sharks did not have Paul Gallen, Wade Graham, Luke Lewis and Josh Dugan. Cooma kid Jack Williams was on debut (and scored a try, and looks a likely lad). Matt Moylan was playing a ball-distribution role he appears unsuited to. Chad Townsend and Aiden Sezar could be the same person.
But a win is a win, as Melbourne Storm would tell you, and keeps their season humming. Cronulla appears to like playing in Canberra – it’s their sixth win there on the trot. Something about the underdog status suits their narky mentality.
The Raiders? Well…
The Raiders will lose Austin for a few weeks with a “high ankle sprain” and need Josh Hodgson and Sam Williams to return like Elvis fans crave the King. They could do worse than trot out 50-year-old coach Ricky Stuart, and get him barking at his men behind the line like Allan Langer does for the Broncos.
The Broncos? Touched up at home by a Manly team who’d lost five straight. There is no tipping this competition, it’s like that wheel they had on Pluck-a-Duck.
But Manly fans will take it, of course. Their backs made hay on the back of forthright, punishing hard-charges by their forward division, most notably Jake Trbojevich, the Blues’ moral for No13, who plays like Glenn Stewart morphed with Sam Backo: quick feet, big body, go-forward. There’s a lot to like about Manly’s “JT”.
Souths, meanwhile, went at the Dragons like a badger on the leg of a prize bullock. In defence, the Rabbitohs flew up hard, committed, and gave the Dragons’ thunder men no space. It was quick hands out wide, tap-ons, because it had to be – such was the rushing, swarming Bunny D. And the Bunnies won 24-10, wire-to-wire.
Elsewhere, the Penrith Panthers sneakily consolidated second spot with a win over the Knights. The Warriors managed to hang onto third spot despite being belted by Roosters. And Wests Tigers won over the rudderless, confounding Cowboys and became one of five teams on 12 points – with the Sharks, Roosters, Rabbitohs and Storm.
