The Dubbo Kangaroos will again look towards its potent backline in Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup qualifying semi-final against the Forbes Platypi.
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While the forward pack has never let down Roos coach Dean Matthews and his assistants this season, there’s no denying the side’s strength is its power and pace out wide.
Fullback Luke Ryan, wingers Viliame Turuva and Hamish Gordon and the centre pairing of Billy Sing and Sione Lolohea has proved a handful for nearly every opposition this season and will be vital to the Roos’ chances come Saturday.
The winner of the clash at Forbes’ Grinsted Oval advances to a major semi-final date with the Orange Emus juggernaut while the loser then faces a sudden death match against either Bathurst Bulldogs or Orange City.
The two times the Roos and Platypi, which finished the regular season third and second respectively, have met this season the matches have been decided by a combined 10 points and Matthews expects Saturday to be no different.
“I don’t think it will be high-scoring,” he said, before praising his backline’s ability to break a game open.
“Mark Stanford (assistant coach) has been in charge of the backs all year and he’s said to me there’s no substitute for speed.
“Those guys can get the ball 90m out from the tryline and do a jig or a goosestep and in the blink of an eye they’re gone and we tell those players we back them to back themselves.
“It can be a bit of a coach-killer at times but when it comes off it looks good.
“They’ve been doing it all year so hopefully they can do it again on Saturday.”
Matthews confessed an away game at Forbes was far from an ideal match given the Platypi’s prowess at Grinsted.
The Platypi won all but two of its matches this season, both of those losses came against the minor premiership-winning Emus.
“And they get a good backing from their crowd, it’s vocal there but we’ve got our colts going over too and it’s finals time so hopefully we can get a few there as well,” Matthews said.
While many would imagine the Roos to be solely focused on winning this weekend and moving within one game of a grand final, the side is also using the game as a chance to support the beleaguered Western Force.
The Force are on the verge of extinction after the Perth-based franchise was cut from the Super Rugby competition by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) earlier this month.
The club is fighting the decision and due to contacts Roos players Shaun McHugh and Monty Hicks have with the Force, they have organised to wear the one-off jerseys and many other clubs around the country are expected to follow.
“It’s not to take away from the importance of the game but we’ll be one of the first clubs in Australia to wear these,” Matthews said.
“And we got the support of the club president to do it and the coaching staff think it’s great to stand behind Australian rugby.”
Matthews added he was uncertain of his final lineup with prop Will Chaffey set to miss the match.
Kick off at Forbes is 3.15pm.