The Toyota Forklifts Canberra Raiders fell 18 – 12 to a strong Dragons side and breaking their nine-game winning streak.
It was intense battle with the weather tonight with strong winds around the park. And despite a locked up second half, the Raiders were plagued by errors and couldn’t come back against the Dragons.
The Raiders were gifted an early opportunity after being awarded a penalty, but a short kick handed possession back to the Dragons.
The Dragons applied consistent attacking pressure, finding themselves in the Raiders’ red zone multiple times. Despite several set restarts, the Raiders held firm in defence, disrupting multiple scoring attempts until St George’s Matthew Feagai found a gap and crossed for the first points of the night.
The Raiders came dangerously close to crossing the line through Hudson Young soon after, but the Dragons forced a knock on to deny the opportunity.
An unsuccessful Raiders’ challenge then handed possession back to the Dragons, who found themselves 10 metres from the try line. A strong tackle from Ethan Strange halted their attacking run.
The Raiders finally broke their drought with Matt Timoko spinning over the line. The conversion was unsuccessful, leaving the score at 6 – 4 with 15 minutes remaining in the first half.
A high tackle by the Raiders gave the Dragons an opportunity to extend their lead. The Raiders nearly disrupted the play, but a successful captain’s challenge awarded the Dragons a penalty, which they converted to add another two points. Moments later, the Dragons kicked another successful penalty extending the score to 10-4.
With four minutes remaining in the first half and the Raiders desperate to level the score, they continued to fight hard despite battling strong winds. It was Timoko who struck again, grounding the ball under the posts. Jamal Fogarty converted to level the scores at 10-all heading into halftime.
The second half began with both sides trading sets. The deadlock was almost broken by the Dragons but a strong tackle from Seb Kris and Jed Stuart forced the ball free from St George’s grasp.
The play remained end-to-end until St George broke through down the left edge to score the first points of the second half, 15 minutes in.
A high tackle on Ata Mariota handed the Raiders field position in the red zone, but an untimely error ended their opportunity.
Plagued by errors the Raiders struggled to get the ball over the try line. The Dragons again were awarded another penalty kick after a second effort was ruled, extending their lead to 18 – 10 with seven minutes left.
A knock on from the Dragons handed the Raiders a golden opportunity to score again. A strip by St George soon after earned the Raiders a penalty, which Fogarty slotted to give the green machine two points and narrow the margin 18 – 12.
With 60 seconds left on the clock the Raiders almost crossed the line again, but an obstruction penalty sealed the win for the Dragons.
The Raiders will be looking to bounce back when they take on Manly at GIO Stadium next Friday night.
