The Canberra Raiders have won their fourth straight game at AAMI Park, claiming a 20-16 win over the Storm in Round 18 action on Sunday afternoon.
The Raiders showed great resilience to defeat the top four Storm side despite Jordan Rapana being sin binned in the second half. The green machine now move up to 10th on the ladder and sit just one win outside the top eight.
It was a phenomenal game of football between the two teams who were desperate to climb the ladder with finals approaching.
Match Highlights: Raiders v Storm
Both sides showed promising signs in their respective first sets, the Storm made a break which ended in a forward pass while the Raiders earned themselves a repeat set after a toe poke from Jordan Rapana.
It wasn't long after though that the Storm opened the scoring in the sixth minute, capitalising off a penalty and set restart.
Kenneath Bromwich showed great strength to offload the ball to Nick Meaney who crossed over in the left corner.
Ryan Papenhuyzen converted from the left sideline to give the Storm an early six-point lead.
However, the Raiders didn't take long to strike back as Sebastian Kris intercepted the ball and ran almost 90 metres to score.
Kris intercepts and runs the distance with a celebration to boot
Jamal Fogarty converted to bring the score to six points all after 11 minutes.
The Storm looked threatening but the Raiders were too good defensively in the opening quarter of the match before turning defence into attack.
It was a special bit of play as a Rapana run turned into a line break through some great offloading by Rapana and Young as Wighton ran down the left sideline.
In cover defence, Papenhuyzen collided with Wighton who left the field with a suspected fractured patella following the collision.
The Raiders then earned a penalty as Savage was escorted off a Fogarty kick, electing to kick a penalty goal and take a 8-6 lead in the 23rd minute.
That galvanised the Raiders who then looked like the more dangerous team, rolling their way down the field. A Corey Harawira-Naera offload set up a two on one, setting up a first career try for James Schiller in the right hand corner.
Fogarty converted once again to give the Raiders an eight-point lead.
Schiller scores first NRL try
Both teams kept creating chances as both defences struggled against such high-powered attack.
The Storm earned themselves a repeat set after Savage played at the ball. Cameron Munster produced a beautiful bit of play to set up Jahrome Hughes with a chip kick but the try was overturned after Hughes failed to ground the ball.
James Schiller came close to scoring his second try of the match in the 36th minute after another great backline play but was denied by Justin Olam.
The Storm earned themselves a penalty which led to great field position in the final minute of the half, but the Raiders denied any hope of a try on half-time to go into the break with a 14-6 lead.
The second half started a lot different to the first half as both sides aimed up defensively with some brutal hits.
It wasn't until the 49th minute that the Raiders broke the game open with a line break that ended with Rapana nearly crossing over in the left corner.
Unfortunately it was the Storm who opened the scoring just moments later, with a great eyes up play from Hughes who took a quick tap off a penalty to cross over in the 50th minute.
Meaney took over the goal kicking duties with Papenhuyzen injured but failed to convert, keeping the deficit to four points.
The Raiders immediately went on the attack following the try, earning a goal line dropout off the kick off but couldn't find the try line.
The arm wrestled continued until the 58th minute when play was stopped for a HIA which resulted in Rapana being sin binned.
The Storm immediately capitalised on their one-man advantage as Harry Grant crossed over from a dummy half run in the 60th minute.
Meaney converted from the left side of the post to give the Storm a two-point lead.
The Raiders showed great resilience to defend with 12 men and took the lead in the 68th minute.
Schiller showed great individual brilliance to grubber for himself down the right sideline and dive from outside the field of play and score while getting both his feet down in the field of play.
James Schiller with the spectacular
Fogarty kept his perfect conversion rate intact for the match as he nailed the conversion from the right sideline to give the Raiders a 20-16 lead.
Unfortunately Schiller left the field just moments after his spectacular try with an ankle injury.
Stuart lauds Schiller and confirms injury is not as bad as first thought
The Storm were rewarded with some great field position off the back of an escort penalty but the Raiders kept turning the Storm away.
The green machine's defensive effort was rewarded with a penalty which then gave the Raiders great field position. Wighton put in a great grubber kick which sat up for Savage who failed to ground the ball.
This gave the Storm a seven tackle set, rolling down the field but Savage made a game-saving tackle on Hughes over the try line to hand possession back to the green machine.
After turning the ball over on the Storm’s goal line it set up a heart stopping final two minutes.
The Storm threw anything they could at the Raiders in the final few moments, including earning a penalty, but it was overturned due to a successful captain's challenge.
The Raiders won 20-16 to claim their fourth straight victory at AAMI Park and sit just one win behind the top eight.
