Canberra Raiders snapped a three-game losing streak today against Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium, earning a 22-16 victory in a seesawing game.
Mitchell Moses, newly signed from Wests Tigers, made his Parramatta debut at halfback, pushing Will Smith out of the team.
The Raiders took a ten-point lead after 20 minutes, with young winger Nick Cotric scoring a brilliant try in the left corner in the fourth minute and Josh Hodgson putting Joey Leilua over the line.
But the Eels levelled at half time, with Moses’ kicking game causing problems for the Raiders and two tries in the final six minutes of the half from Manu Ma’u and Michael Jennings, with Clint Gutherson converting one of them to make it 10-10 at half time.
The Eels appeared to be growing stronger and they went ahead for the first time on 48 minutes when Siosaia Vave touched down, with Gutherson’s conversion putting them six ahead.
But the Raiders found their second wind and clinched the result with tries by Blake Austin and a superb touchdown by boom winger Jordan Rapana, with Jarrod Croker, playing in his 200th NRL game, converting both tries.
Eels: 1 Bevan French, 2 Semi Radradra, 3 Michael Jennings, 4 Kirisome Auva’a, 5 Josh Hoffman, 6 Clint Gutherson, 21 Mitchell Moses, 8 Suaia Matagi, 9 Kaysa Pritchard, 10 Tim Mannah (c), 11 Manu Ma’u, 12 Tepai Moeroa, 13 Nathan Brown; Interchange: 15 Daniel Alvaro, 16 Kenny Edwards, 17 Siosaia Vave, 14 Beau Scott (c).
Raiders: 1 Jack Wighton, 2 Nick Cotric, 3 Jarrod Croker (c), 4 Joseph Leilua, 5 Jordan Rapana, 6 Blake Austin, 7 Aidan Sezer, 8 Junior Paulo, 9 Josh Hodgson, 10 Shannon Boyd, 11 Josh Papalii, 12 Elliott Whitehead, 13 Joe Tapine; Interchange: 14 Adam Clydsdale, 16 Clay Priest, 17 Iosia Soliola, 18 Dunamis Lui.
Full coverage of all the weekend’s NRL matches can be found in Monday’s issue of League Express
