The Canberra Raiders have secured their spot in the finals with an emphatic 56-10 victory over the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday afternoon.
An impressive first half performance from the green machine was the highlight of the match, proving too big of a hurdle for the Tigers with Canberra taking a 42-point lead into the break.
With the Brisbane Broncos loss on Saturday night all but ensuring Canberra would play in the finals, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart decided pre-game to rest star-half Jack Wighton for the final game of the regular season.
But that didn’t stop Canberra from getting off to the perfect start in sunny conditions in Sydney’s inner west, with a Jamal Fogarty grubber in the side’s third set of the game proving a nightmare for the Tigers ending with Matt Timoko scoring.
It was quickly followed by two tries to the green machine through Sebastian Kris and Nick Cotric in the ninth and 12th minutes.
Following Fogarty’s third conversion, the Raiders had already blown out to an 18-nil lead and showed no signs of slowing down.
The Tigers managed to even out the field positioning following Cotric’s try but a simple tackle break on halfway gave the Raiders their fourth try of the opening 20 minutes. Kris was able to return the favour to Jordan Rapana who had set up his try earlier in the half.
Canberra looked unstoppable in the ten minutes that followed scoring three tries in as many sets. Hudson Young started it with a crash over play in the 26th minute which was followed in the next set with Xavier Savage flying high to pluck the ball out of the air and score.
Fogarty scored a four-pointer of his own in the set that followed off a line break through the middle of the field. He was able to convert his own try to give Canberra a 42-0 lead which they took into halftime.
Needing a big second half to overcome the Raiders’ electric first 40 minutes, the Tigers got off to a strong start scoring two tries in the first ten minutes.
The home side looked in control of the momentum and were on the road to a potential comeback. However, Canberra’s strike back rower Hudson Young changed the script showing his brute strength close to the once again to score his second try of the match.
With Fogarty given an early mark by Ricky Stuart, Rapana took over conversion kicking duties and made no mistake adding the extra two points to make it 48-10 with 27 minutes to go.
Only six minutes later, powerhouse forward Josh Papalii forced his way over to score the Raiders ninth try of the afternoon. Rapana slotted the conversion from slightly to the right of the uprights to make it a 44-point lead.
Tempers started to flare in the final five minutes of the match, escalating into Tigers forward Zane Musgrove being sin-binned for elbowing Corey Horsburgh in the back of the head in a tackle.
The Raiders opted to take the penalty goal from right in front to make it 56-10 which was the score at fulltime.
With the Raiders making it through to the finals, they will face the 2020 premiers and rivals the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park with the times and dates still yet to be confirmed.
