Ricky rips into rotten eggs 'stench' in call for stadium revamp

Here were the winners and losers out of Canberra's 32-12 demolition of Wests Tigers in Benji Marshall's NRL head coaching debut.

Foul odour floods stadium

You know it's not good when a pungent rotten eggs odour dominates the essence of Deep Heat outside footy players' change rooms.

After Saturday's game, players, coaches, families and friends of the teams - as well as the media - had to hold their noses as a foul smell flooded the tunnel underneath Canberra Stadium in the Mal Meninga Stand.

Two weeks out from the Socceroos and Lebanon playing at Bruce, it's not clear what caused the odour or how venue staff will get rid of it, but to say it wasn't a great advertisement for the capital is an understatement. And Stuart agreed.

"I feel sorry for those people there with the stench," the Raiders coach said post-game.

"I know people laugh at it. But we are the capital of Australia.

"The stadium administration are wonderful and they accommodate us so well. They, and Canberra, deserve a new stadium. It's absolutely crap that they don't build a stadium to look after Canberra's people.

"I'm uneducated in politics, which I'm very happy about, but politicians should learn a bit off sport because I believe there's a lot of good leaders in sport."

The ACT government announced in June it plans to spend more than $500 million to build a new 30,000-seat stadium at Bruce by 2033, with the final location of the project to be finalised later this year.

Home ground advantage?

The ACT government picked an interesting colour scheme to promote the Bush Capital in new signage on the eastern stand at Canberra Stadium.

A mural with "#WeAreCBR" in large print was adorned on the wall beside the Gregan-Larkham Stand, not with the ACT's colours of blue and yellow, though, but with a striking bright orange scheme just above the away supporters area of Wests Tigers faithful. Whoops.

Savage and Kris shine

Sebastian Kris returned from suspension at centre and didn't take any time to find his feet, but what was most promising was his combination with speedy winger Xavier Savage.

A Kris offload set up Savage to put hooker Danny Levi in for the Raiders' opening try, and the centre's quick-thinking penalty tap from 30 metres also put Savage in to score down the short side.

Stuart later revealed it was Savage who pushed a move to the left wing beside Kris, with whom he is "brothers" with off the field.

"Xavier spoke to me first about him playing the left wing, because he has a great relationship with Sebby which got me a bit shitty," Stuart explained.

"Because I said he can play wherever he wants because he's got talent. It's all him. He's got to have a bit more belief in himself."

Kris later failed his head injury assessment in the second half. Stuart said he was set to miss next Friday's away clash against the Warriors.

Strange new world

Experts thought the Raiders would struggle without Jack Wighton wearing the No.6 jersey, but Ethan Strange has added an excellent new dynamic to the halves in his first two games in the role this year.

Strange looked ever-dangerous using his footwork to bust through tackles, and showcased his strength to muscle over for a first-half try with Tigers players hanging off him in just his third NRL game.

He was also stronger defensively this week, despite being put on report for a high tackle that saved a certain try in the corner late in the game.