“Big game jitters”

Six representatives from Young competed in the weekend’s match between the Riverina Rugby League Academy (RRLA) and the Canberra Raiders squad.

In what Country Rugby League (CRL) regional manager David Skinner described as a “terrible” performance, the RRLA weren’t able to secure a win.

“The final score [for the Under 16s] was 22-10,” Skinner said.

“The Under 18s were a whole different story, they got beaten 78-10.

”They were overawed before they walked out on the field, they didn’t look overly excited about playing the game so it wasn’t good.”

But the news wasn’t all bad, with Young players among the standouts on the day according to Skinner.

“Jake Walker was if not our best, certainly in our top three,” he said.

“Jake had a go - he was prepared to take the bigger Canberra forwards on in both attack and defence.”

Wall also earned a mention, with plans in mind to increase his involvement with the team’s structure.

With two weeks remaining before the academy’s match against the Melbourne Storm, Skinner said the squads will be working on certain areas of the game so players aren’t “overawed” when they come up against the Victorian side. 

“The situation we’ve got is they have an opportunity to show there’s more to them than what we saw in them in Canberra when we play the Melbourne game,” he said.

“We’re willing to excuse some big game jitters for one game but they’re really going to have to ensure it doesn’t happen again against Melbourne.”