Undefeated NRC side Canberra Vikings have their sights set on a third-straight win, over Brisbane City, in the 2017 competition.
The men from the nation’s capital notched a last-gasp 33-26 victory over defending champions, Perth Spirit last weekend, with two tries in the last 15 minutes sealing the win and second place on the ladder.
Vikings coach Tim Sampson lauded his team’s fast start to the year, and their attacking ingenuity, but admitted defensive problems needed to be solved if they are to be title contenders.
“It was a pretty pleasing performance, we won it at the death and came from behind, and to know that we can jag a game like that at the end gives us a lot of confidence,” he said.
“There are still a few things to iron out, both games we’ve played really good footy, we’ve just got to iron out a few of our defensive issues, but I think we’ve shown when we can get good field position we can score points quite easily.”
Sampson said the forward pack was certainly helping the team's early success, also pleased with the team's ability to run games out.
“Up front our tight five are very good at the set piece, we dominated our scrum and drew a lot of good penalties there, which gave us good field position, and we got a lot from the bench when they came on," he said.
The Vikings mentor was particularly pleased with emerging back James Dargaville, who has led the way in their attack.
“(James) Dargaville was very good through the middle of the field, his experience there is going a long way to how we’re performing," he said.
Sampson said they would be wary of a wounded Brisbane City, that will have plenty of stars in its lineup.
“They’re a good team, they suffered a pretty heavy loss on the weekend so they’ll be keen to put in a pretty good performance this round," he said.
“They play a loose brand of footy, so our defence will have to be on point. They’ve got a lot of Super Rugby experience, so it’ll be a tough assignment up there.
The Canberra Vikings take on Brisbane City on Saturday September 17, kicking off at 1pm AEST LIVE STREAMED on foxsports.com.au/rugby.
