CANBERRA RAIDERS 56 WESTS TIGERS 10
CALLUM WALKER, GIO Stadium, Saturday

CANBERRA wiped the floor with a lacklustre Wests as the Tigers continued their slide down the NRL ladder.

Now third bottom, Wests never looked like causing an upset here, despite Ethan Roberts’ early try cancelling out Jed Stuart’s seventh-minute effort.

But from when Ethan Sanders – who racked up 20 of Canberra’s 56 points – crossed moments later, the writing was on the wall for the Tigers.

Ethan Strange was the next on the scoresheet before Kaeo Weekes and Xavier Savage added insult to injury to make it 28-6.

Faaletino Tavana did add some respectability to the scoreline with half-time in sight, but the Raiders still led 28-10 at the break.

And, sadly for the visitors, that was as good as it got as the Green Machine started to turn its cogs ever faster following the resumption.

Daine Laurie was a man on a mission in the second 40 minutes and his 16-minute hat-trick racked up a 46-10 scoreline in the blink of an eye.

Still the Raiders weren’t finished there and Stuart grabbed a second with eleven minutes to go before Matthew Timoko rounded off proceedings late on.

RAIDERS: 1 Kaeo Weekes, 2 Jed Stuart, 3 Simi Sasagi, 4 Matthew Timoko, 5 Xavier Savage, 6 Ethan Strange, 7 Ethan Sanders, 8 Corey Horsburgh, 9 Tom Starling, 10 Joseph Tapine, 11 Zac Hosking, 15 Ata Mariota, 13 Morgan Smithies. Subs: 14 Jayden Brailey, 16 Josh Papalii, 17 Daine Laurie, 18 Matty Nicholson, 19 Sebastian Kris (not used), 21 Vena Patuki-Case (not used)

Tries: Stuart (7, 70), Sanders (16), Strange (21), Weekes (25), Savage (34), Laurie (52, 61, 68), Timoko (76); Goals: Sanders 8/10

TIGERS: 1 Jahream Bula, 2 Junior Tupou, 3 Sunia Turuva, 4 Patrick Herbert, 5 Faaletino Tavana, 6 Jarome Luai, 7 Javon Andrews, 8 Terrell May, 9 Apisai Koroisau, 10 Fonua Pole, 11 Samuela Fainu, 12 Ethan Roberts, 13 Alex Twal. Subs: 14 Jared Haywood, 15 Sione Fainu, 16 Alex Seyfarth, 17 Bunty Afoa, 18 Starford To’a (not used), 23 Heath Mason (not used)

Tries: Roberts (12), Tavana (37); Goals: Koroisau (13)

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-6, 10-6, 16-6, 22-6, 28-6, 28-10; 34-10, 40-10, 46-10, 52-10, 56-10

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Raiders: Ethan Sanders; Tigers: Ethan Roberts

Penalty count: 5-7; Half-time: 28-10; Referee: Jarrod Cole; Attendance: 16,223