An ill-disciplined and error filled performance has seen the Canberra Raiders concede their first loss of the season, going down 44-24 at home to the New Zealand Warriors.
It was a tale of two halves for the young Raiders side, with the kick-off going out on the full, it set the trend of the first half for the Green Machine. With six errors and conceding six penalties the Warriors were able to take their chances and score at will.
Matiu Love-Henry opened the scoring early in the 10th minute, powering over the try line to set up the conversion for Matoa’aeata Hingano, giving the Warriors a 6-0 lead.
The Raiders managed to answer quickly in the 14th minute off a warriors knock on. With Lachlan Croker picking up the loose ball and giving it off to Chevi Ellis who scored next to the corner post, closing the gap 4-6.
The Warriors went into the sheds at half time with a comfortable lead after running in four tries to nil, due to penalties and errors conceded by the Raiders. Leaving the men in green a gap of 28-4 at half time.
In the second half the Raiders managed to start off positively, scoring first in the 44th minute off a Warriors knock on which saw Brenko Lee score an easy try.
From there on it was an arm wrestle with both sides scoring try for try leaving an unassailable lead for the Green Machine to overcome.
A late run away try from Jack Hickson in the 76th minute gave the Canberra Crowd something to cheer about before the final siren went off handing the Warriors a 20 point win.
Canberra simply couldn’t put their first half together, giving New Zealand all the opportunities. Conceding a first half lead of 24 points turned out to be too great for the Raiders, even with a much improved second half performance.
The two standout performers for the Raiders were Brenko Lee with two handy tries and the Captain, Lachlan Croker, whilst not at his best like last week was one of the shining performers.
