St George remain top with Raiders win

St George Illawarra Dragons kept their pace up at the top of the NRL table with a 25-18 victory over Canberra Raiders at the Glen Willow Oval.

After falling behind to a Nick Cotric try, the Dragons responded through Jack de Belin. But Joey Leilua responded for the away side to nudge them ahead once again.

Two Gareth Widdop penalties levelled the game at half-time at 10-10.

Jarrod Croker edged the Raiders head early with a penalty of his own before Widdop’s try gave St George the lead.

Jordan Rapana made sure that Canberra were in the game with a try on 55 minutes but was then binned for a professional foul only four minutes later. Widdop levelled the game at 18-18 with a penalty on 62 minutes.

Matt Dufty scored the winning try with eleven minutes to go before Widdop sealed the win with a field goal.

Dragons: Dufty, MacDonald, Aitken, Lafai, Nightingale, Widdop, Hunt, Graham, McInnes, Vaughan, Frizell, Sims, de Belin; Interchanges: Latimore, Mann, Ah Mau, Lawrie
Tries: de Belin, Widdop, Dufty; Goals: Widdop 7; Field goal: Widdop

Raiders: Wighton, Cotric, Croker, Leilua, Rapana, Austin, Sezer, Soliola, Havili, Gubb, Tapine, Whitehead, Papalii; Interchanges: Boyd, Hingano, Bateman, Lui
Tries: Cotric, Leilua, Rapana; Goals: Croker 3
Sin-bin: Rapana – professional foul

Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.