Here is this week’s edition of by the numbers as the Raiders got back to winning ways with a convincing victory over the Newcastle Knights at GIO Stadium on Friday night.
The Raiders took control of the match early on and enjoyed most of the possession throughout the contest with 54% compared to the Knights 46%.
The visitors surprisingly had more sets than the home side with 33 compared to 32. The Novocastrians had a far less completion rate compared to the men from Canberra as they could only conjure up 73% while the men in green had an impressive 88%.
The Knights led the Raiders in the offloads as they completed 10 compared to home side’s four.
In defence the green machine completed 380 kicking metres compared to the Knights 115. Nathan Brown’s men also completed 277 tackles with 42 missed tackles in total. Ricky Stuart will be pleased with his side after they made 219 tackles and only missed 23.
Junior Paulo was at his best for the Raiders as he played over 60 minutes, making 152 running metres, completing 14 tackles with a try and two line breaks.
In only a 37 minute cameo, Shannon Boyd mustered up 121 running metres whilst also helping out with 18 tackles in defence.
Jordan Rapana proved again how much of a try scoring machine he can be as he notched up a hat-trick for the Raiders whilst also making three line breaks in the process.
Most of Rapana’s tries came from the brilliance of Jack Wighton as the pair combined nicely on the right side to inflict damage on the Knights. The fullback contributed with one line break a try and two try assists. One of Wighton’s assists for Rapana was awarded the play of the week.
