Courageous Canterbury outlast rusty Raiders

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Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs v Canberra Raiders

An injury-ravaged Canterbury-Bankstown have recorded a 16-10 upset win over an error-riddled Canberra Raiders tonight at ANZ Stadium in front of 13,990 fans.

In a game that could be best described as an arm-wrestle, Canterbury took the early advantage through some weak right-side Raiders defence, Adam Elliot cutting through with ease to open the scoring.

Fifteen minutes in the Raiders were able to hit back with Jarrod Croker dotting down in the corner off the back of a Papalii line break. Croker pulled up sore after that particular tryscoring movement, handing kicking duties to Aidan Sezer who missed.

The Raiders were able to push into the lead at the half-hour mark when Josh Hodgson scored under the sticks off the back of a handy break by Nick Cotric. The subsequent conversion gave the visitors a 10-4 lead which they took to halftime.

The real talking point for the first half was the Bulldogs losing two of their key men - Josh Reynolds pulling a hamstring and James Graham missing the bulk of the contest with a concussion.

Canterbury have become known for strong performances in the second half this season, and tonight was no different - Josh Morris exposing the Canberra left edge defence and again the Bulldogs grabbed a four-pointer. Kerrod Holland corrected his earlier poor goalkicking to level the scores. 

Near the hour mark, Adam Elliot doubled his try-scoring tally for the night, putting the home team in front. Canterbury shut the Raiders out for the remaining 20 minutes of the game to record a courageous win with a 2-man bench rotation for the best part of the last hour.

After the rep round, Canterbury open the NRL's Indigenous round when they host the Cowboys at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night, while Canberra head to Newcastle to face the Knights on the Sunday of the same round.