Raiders revived with win over bumbling Bulldogs

v BYE

The Canberra Raiders have scored a remarkable 32-20 come from behind victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs at a cold GIO Stadium in the national capital of Canberra.

The Bulldogs managed to open the scoring through debutant Reimis Smith and then Aidan Tolman chased through a grubber kick to score to send the Bulldogs out to a 10-0 lead. Some smart work closed the gap for the Raiders with Jordan Rapana crossing after some excellent lead up work from Joseph Leilua who threw a beautiful flick pass to set his winger up.

Jack Wighton's poor handling skills cost the Raiders more points when in the set after the Raiders fullback knocked on an easy kick the Bulldogs hit back on the scoreboard through the debutant Reimis Smith who scored his second for the afternoon and his third overall for the weekend after scoring one in the ISP yesterday.

Canberra caught the Bulldogs napping inside the final five minutes of the half when Joseph Leilua was on the end of a 95m raid from the Raiders across two plays and after the try the gap closed to 14-10 at half time.

Early in the second half Moses Mbye burst through some average defence from the Raiders to extend the lead out to 20-10 for the Bulldogs and it looked like it was going to be a long half for the Raiders at that stage.

It was the Raiders that made the Bulldogs look average when Joseph Tapine crossed for the first of his double stepping his way to the line for an easy try.

The Raiders then kept the scoring up with two quick tries to Edrick Lee and then Iosia Soliola to push the margin out to a converted try for the green machine.

The final points of the second half came through Joseph Tapine when like his first he made the Bulldogs defence look second rate and after the conversion from Jarrod Croker the Raiders won 32-20.

Next weekend the Raiders have one of the shortest turnarounds of any team in the NRL this season with a home game against Manly next Friday night whilst Canterbury will wait eight days before facing the Sharks at home on Monday night.