Raiders have ‘opened people’s eyes’: NRLW coach

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Raiders have ‘opened people’s eyes’: NRLW coach

Darrin Borthwick says Canberra have opened up the NRLW’s eyes in round one as his side prepares for an early litmus test against heavyweights Newcastle.

The Raiders’ lethal ******* helped them to a 32-12 victory over Wests Tigers last Sunday that put them atop the ladder.

The decisive victory came after they fared best of the four expansion teams last season, though they were ultimately ousted from finals contention when Brisbane went on a late-season run.

Canberra entered the new year tipped to improve on their fifth-placed finish, with the side’s first-up win only justifying the higher expectations.

Borthwick said rivals would not underestimate his side in 2024.

“I think with any good performance, it sort of opens a few peoples’ eyes and obviously that’s what we’ve done with putting in what we did last week,” the coach said.

“But one thing about this group is they’ll stay humble and they’ll stay switched on.

“We’ve done nothing in this competition yet so we’ve just got to keep building and building.”

Borthwick welcomed this Saturday’s tough test against back-to-back premiers Newcastle, who were defensively superb in last week’s defeat of the Sydney Roosters.

“We’ll get a really good look tomorrow of where we’re at as a team,” he said.

Elsewhere, a week spent taking calls in the membership department has Evania Pelite eyeing a record crowd for Gold Coast’s clash with the Tigers.

The fullback works in the Titans’ membership and ticketing team outside of football so has been personally responding to punters ahead of Saturday’s double-header with the men’s game against Brisbane.

Gold Coast have already declared a sell-out for the NRL fixture, meaning a crowd of around 27,000 is expected to pass through the turnstiles at Cbus Super Stadium.

For the Titans to break the record for biggest crowd at a regular-season NRLW game, they will need just under 20,000 of those fans to arrive early for the women’s fixture.

A crowd of 19,519 attended the Knights’ clash against Cronulla in round six last season, which ******** the code’s biggest outside of finals or women’s State of Origin.

“It’s been really interesting being on the phones the last seven days, a lot of members are ringing up asking if their tickets get them into the NRLW game,” Pelite said.

“For me being in the team and hearing that people are wanting to come out and support our team is definitely unique.

“It’s really exciting. It’s great that we’ve got a sold-out crowd, it’d be even better to break an NRLW crowd record.”

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