Raiders do it again

Canberra have done it again by giving this author a heart attack and beaten one of the premierships big guns at home, with a heart stopping 38-30 victory over the New Zealand Warriors. With under three minutes remaining, Canberra, trailing 30-26, put the ball up high and HJohn Carlaw from the Warriors knocked the ball on. From the ensuing scrum, Mark Mclinden cut the Warriors defence to bits and score under the posts to give Canberra the lead 32-30 with just on two minutes to play.

Canberra then hgot the ball back in the last minute and were awarded a penalty only two metres out with rampaging forward, Ruben Wiki scoring in the corner and captain Simon Woolford kicked the conversion from touch to give the Raiders another unexpected victory and an outside shot at the top eight as they start to regain their graveyard reputation as a side to be feared at home.

Canberra skipped out to an early sixteen nil lead and then to a 26-18 lead but were soon overhauled by the Warriors, whose premiership aspirations suffered a major setback in a match they were expected to win easily.

Raiders 38 (Tries: Mark McLinden, Mark Asbock, Phillip Graham, Jamaal Lolesi, Michael Monaghan, Todd Payten, Ruben Wiki. Goals: Joel Monaghan 0/1, Phillip Graham 4/7, Simon Woolford 1/1) defeated Warriors 30 (Tries: Toopi 2, Lauiti'iti, Anderson, Webb. Goals: Cleary 5/5)