Raiders hand another loss to Parramatta

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Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels

The Parramatta Eels have been handed their sixth consecutive defeat to start the NRL season with an 18-2 loss to the Canberra Raiders at GIO Stadium.

Wet and windy conditions met the two sides to begin the game and the half began with end to end action with both sides having good chances to score with attacking raids at either end of the park and with errors and penalties costing the Eels in particular from their key players in good attacking position.

The opening try came on the 10 minute mark when the a Leipana play came off for the homeside when Joseph Leilua got into dummy half and used a very short side overlap to find Jordan Rapana who crossed in the corner for the opening try of the match. Just five minutes later, the Raiders and their fans were celebrating a second try for Rapana but it needed to be approved by the bunker who after several replays overturned Matt Cecchin's live decision of try when replays showed a knock on by Rapana into the legs of Clint Gutherson whilst trying to gather the ball.

Just two minutes later the Raiders did add another try to the scoreboard and it came through Blake Austin who ran into a massive gap that was left by retreating Parramatta defence and after the Croker conversion the Raiders opened up a 10-0 lead.

The Eels couldn't have been accused of a lack of ball and attacking position having been tackled inside the Raiders 20m zone at least 20 times but could only come up with a 40th minute penalty goal from Mitch Moses after Kenny Edwards was tackled without the ball after trying to grubber for himself.

The second half was played in arguably worse conditions than what the first half had, the Raiders had dominance of possession in the second half and had the best of the chances and their only second half points came in the 54th minute when the Raiders scored through Josh Papalii who went through the line with a hard run at the line to score. 

The Penalties continued to build up against the Eels in the second half and Daniel Alvaro saw the end of Matt Cecchin's leniency just short of the hour mark when he was given 10 minutes in the sin bin for the Eels repeated infringements by the Eels. The sin bin came out then again in the 70th minute when Canberra's Luke Bateman was sent to the sin bin after it was the Raiders were the ones to give away a number of penalties in a row.

The Eels then thought they had points but again a live decision of TRY was overturned when Ashley Klein ruled that Tim Mannah had caused an obstruction much to the bemusement of the players and commentators.

Next weekend the Raiders take a roadtrip to Gosford where they take on the South Sydney Rabbitohs whilst things don't get too much easier for the Eels with a clash against Manly at ANZ Stadium.