The Canberra Raiders road doesn’t get any easier this Saturday afternoon, traveling to Wagga Wagga to take on a Melbourne Storm team coming off a 44-0 rout of Canterbury-Bankstown last week. The Storm took both games in 2021 as well, making this not as much of a rivalry as it used to be.
Raiders at Storm Stats
The Storm are 3-0-1 on this young season, with 6 points that trail only the undefeated Penrith Panthers in the NRL. The Raiders are 2-2-0 with 4 points, placing them way down in 12th in the league.
Melbourne is one of the best offensive teams in the NRL, ranking 1st in tries (20), and 3rd in both points (109) and goals (14). Some of that was built up by last week’s 44-0 win over the Bulldogs, but the Raiders still have their work cut out for them in this matchup.
Canberra does not have the same potency as Saturday’s opponents, or at least they haven’t shown it through the first four games of the year. The Raiders are 11th in points (60), 10th in tries (11), and 10th in goals (10). It’s no surprise Canberra is a big underdog in this week’s rugby predictions.
Canberra Stats
Ricky Stuart is going with the same 17 as last week, even though that lineup ended up losing 25-6 to the Sea Eagles. Canberra had no answer for Manly’s Daly-Cherry Evans, as DCE had two field goals and a try assist. That’s not an ideal defensive showing heading into a matchup with Melbourne’s Ryan Paypenhuyzen who is one of the top scorers in the NRL.
The Raiders’ offense hasn’t put it together, for the most part, this year, but they do have some talent in second-year player Brad Schneider, the halfback who leads Canberra with 14 points this season. Combined with Jack Wighton (8 points) the Raiders at least have the potential to try and hang with Melbourne in this rugby betting contest.
Melbourne Stats
Melbourne should be well-rested after cruising to the 44-0 victory last week against Canterbury. Papenhuyzen nearly set a club record with 28 points, falling just short of the 34 put up by Matt Geyer in 1999. Papenhuyzen had four tries and six conversions, no small feat considering Canterbury had been playing solid defense coming into that matchup.
Melbourne has now won 25 of their last 28 games as they head into this round 5 clash in NRL rugby betting predictions.
Raiders at Storm Betting Trends
- Canberra was down 22-0 in round 3 before a 24-22 comeback win
- Canberra had just 70% completions last week vs Manly
- Melbourne has won three of their opening four games
- Melbourne had a 28-24 extra-time defeat to Parramatta
Raiders at Storm Betting Picks
As expected Melbourne is a huge -455 favorite in Saturday afternoon’s matchup. If Canberra could pull off the upset they would cash in at +355 but that seems highly unlikely at Wagga Wagga.
The Raiders are getting +13.5 points though, and even though Melbourne has won four straight in the series, last year’s matchup did feature a 12-10 and a 20-4 win. Closer games than some might have expected. Rugby betting picks can be unpredictable, but Melbourne sure looked good in last week’s 44-0 onslaught.
The total is 40.5 for this contest, but one of the more popular wagers for this game is Papenhuyzen as an any time scorer at -120.
Ultimately the only way to go here is backing Melbourne at home. The -13.5 are a lot of points to give, but this is also a team that was dominant in a 44-0 win in round 4 against a decent defensive team.
Raiders at Storm Betting Preview
Melbourne is a pretty confident play with Papenhuyzen being red hot and this team on a four-game win streak in the series with Canberra. Papenhuyzen has great value in a wager on anytime scorer too after his 28-point outburst in round four. The Raiders also lost 25-6 in Mudgee last week and did not look good at all, especially in their failures to make any halftime adjustments.
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