The Canberra Raiders secured a nail biting 14-12 victory over the Sydney Roosters on Sunday afternoon at Allianz Stadium.
In what was a tough and gritty performance by the Raiders, the visitors held on despite a mountain of Roosters possession late in the game.
In the twelfth minute a Raiders error saw a penalty goal to the Sydney Roosters, creating a 2-0 scoreline.
The Raiders came out firing, with a sharp pass from Danny Levi to captain Elliott Whitehead who burst over to score, creating a 4-2 lead for Canberra.
It was not long until Canberra made themselves known once again, with Levi's quick thinking to Whitehead, who found Simi Sasagi with a great offload to score our second try of the day.
The Raiders headed into the sheds at half-time ahead 10-2, determined to keep the advantage over Sydney Roosters in the second half.
Canberra came out of the blocks firing, capitalizing on Roosters error in the attack. Raiders winger Xavier Savage utilized his speed to dash up the field to score, furthering a 16-2 lead.
A robust and physical game saw Whitehead sent for ten minutes in the sin bin for the second time after a dangerous tackle.
Roosters winger Daniel Tupou scored in the 63rd minute, narrowing the score-line gap to 14- 6.
With the clock ticking an error for Canberra led the Roosters to a penalty kick, bringing the score to 14-8.
With ten seconds on the clock, a Luke Keary kick found Tupou, who grounded the ball to score.
Keary had a chance to level the scores with a sideline conversion but missed, cementing the win for Canberra.
The Canberra Raiders will look to back up with a final clash of 2024 next Saturday afternoon against the Illawarra Dragons at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium at 3pm.
