Canberra Raiders moved into the NRL’s top four with a big 28-0 win over Wests Tigers at Bankwest.
The Raiders opened the scoring in bizarre fashion. Jarrod Croker reached Aidan Sezer’s kick, passed it back on the inside for Elliott Whitehead to cushion the ball with his foot into the arms of Bailey Simonsson.
Simonsson then did well on two occasions to keep out David Nofoaluma and Esan Marsters as the Tigers looked to earn their way back into the game.
The Raiders were rewarded just before half-time with two tries. Sezer ran the ball on the last and in the backfield, kicked to the right for Nick Cotric who toed it forward into the in-goal for Jordan Rapana. Then for the second try, John Bateman grubbered on his inside for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad who passed it back to the English second row.
Brooks thought he might have got a try back for Wests but Thomas Mikaele impacted the play and was in an offside position from the halfback’s kick. Only a few minutes later, the game was over as a contest. Whitehead pounced on a loose pass and broke downfield before Jack Wighton was tackled. Croker then ran from dummy half to space on the left for the try.
Sezer’s intercept try with five minutes to go added some gloss to the scoreline for the Raiders.
Tigers: Mbye, Nofoaluma, Fonua, Marsters, Thompson, Marshall, Brooks, Matulino, Farah, Twal, Matterson, Chee-Kam, Eisenhuth; Interchanges: Liddle, Mikaele, Aloiai, Lawrence
Raiders: Nicoll-Klokstad, Simonsson, Croker, Cotric, Rapana, Wighton, Sezer, Sutton, Havili, Soliola, Bateman, Whitehead, Tapine; Interchanges: Papalii, Lui, Starling, Guler
Tries: Simonsson, Rapana, Bateman, Croker, Sezer; Goals: Croker 4
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
