The Raiders piled on eight tries against the New Zealand Warriors on Friday night to parade their biggest win of the year.
The boys in green made it look all too easy dominating the Warriors at Mt Smart on Friday night showcasing exactly why they deserve to be in the top four.
They’ve won seven of their past eight games, now the Green Machine will consecutively play three in form top eight sides – the Roosters, Melbourne Storm and the Sea Eagles.
It’s no surprise that the Raiders recorded 60% of possession, completing 32/37 of their sets at a rate of 86%. The home side completed 24/30 of their sets at a rate of 80%.
Match Highlights: Raiders sizzle in New Zealand
Both teams were even in errors throughout the game at eight all and maintained discipline throughout the match keeping the penalty count quite low. It was the home side Warriors who won the penalty battle conceding four, while Ricky Stuart’s side conceded six.
The trip to New Zealand didn’t slow the Canberra boys down with the Raiders running for a total of 2060 metres from 218 runs, a notable difference to the home side with a total of 1415 running metres from 152 runs.
In attack, Canberra kept the ball rolling producing 17 offloads and seven line breaks while the home side completed a total of six off loads and two linebreaks.
In defence, the Warriors had their work cut out for them as they made a total of 397 tackles compared to the Raiders 293. The Warriors recorded more missed tackles with 58 with the Raiders missing a total of 27.
Individual statistics:
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad put in yet another outstanding individual performance recording the most run metres on the field running 225 metres in 22 runs with 63 post contact metres.
Josh Papalii and Joseph Tapine were next best in metres for the Green Machine both finishing with 172 metres, Papalii made 75 running metres while Tapine made 66.
Bailey Simonsson had a stellar performance on the wing for the Raiders scoring two tries and running for a total of 155 metres in 15 runs with 43 post contact metres.
John Bateman was instrumental in defence making the most tackles for the Raiders with 38. He was closely followed by Josh Hodgson and Corey Horsburgh who made 35 and 26 respectively.
