Raiders hammer Wests Tigers in NRL
Mar 19, 2017 - 8:43 AM Canberra coach Ricky Stuart wants more consistency from the Raiders after they continued their dominance over Wests Tigers with a 46-6 thrashing to record their first victory of the NRL season.After running up a combined score of 112-16 in their two encounters with the Tigers last season, the Raiders were ruthless at GIO Stadium on Sunday afternoon, scoring eight tries to one.
Jordan Rapana showed his attacking prowess with a double, while Josh Papalii recovered from gifting David Nofoaluma the Tigers' only try to be influential for the Raiders.
Rapana has more points (32-22), tries (8-4) and line breaks (9-7) than the entire Tigers team has mustered in their past three matches against the Raiders.
"It's only one game," Stuart said.
"We've got to show some consistency now because we've only been consistent in one half out of six."
The game was evenly poised five minutes before halftime but back-to-back Canberra tries stunned the Tigers as they went to the break.
The home side pounced after Tigers forward Sauaso Sue left the ground for a concussion test, with Aidan Sezer setting up Papalii to put the Raiders in front.
Minutes later, quick ball movement out to the right allowed Rapana to find space and chip inside for a Blake Austin try.
The Raiders carried the momentum into the second half, with Nick Cotric scoring his first NRL try, which was set up by Aidan Sezer, who latched on to a sloppy Tigers error shortly after the break.
The 18-year-old's four-pointer was converted by Croker, who continued his lethal form in front of goal and opened up an 18-point advantage.
Rapana recaptured his sparkling form from last season, breaking through to set up fullback Jack Wighton 10 minutes later.
Croker had further cause for celebration when he found Wighton had tapped the ball back, and the skipper had enough space to cross to increase the deficit to 28 before Junior Paulo set up Elliot Whitehead.
Rapana completed the rout in the dying minutes and Croker nailed his seventh goal from eight attempts.
The Tigers' second-half fade-out came after they fought hard last week against Penrith only to be belted 36-2.
"There's really good periods of defending our tryline early in the game but then we're just coming up with defensive errors and letting tries in, in a fashion that's too simple," coach Jason Taylor said.
Sue's second-half reappearance was short-lived when he copped another knock attempting to tackle Dave Taylor.
Chris Lawrence also sat out most of the second term after failing a concussion test, while Kevin Naiqama was the third Tiger to go off after a head knock in the closing stages.
Source: AAP
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