Fast-starting Raiders survive fast finishing Knights in see-sawing affair

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Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights

The Canberra Raiders have ensured they kept pace with the scramble for the top 8 on Sunday Afternoon, scoring a go-ahead try in the dying stages to beat the Knights 20 points to 18.

If someone had told you after the first 30 or so minutes that there would be 38 points would be scored, you would've assumed that the Raiders had scored a 38-0 victory, or something in that vicinity. 

The first try was scored 11 minutes in after Fogarty forced one of the first of many repeat sets. Joe Tapine of all people threw a cutout pass that got Cotric one-on-one with Young, with Cotric getting the better of his counterpart and getting over the line.

A Leo Thompson cold drop put the Raiders back on the attack, and after another couple of repeat sets they were over the line once again. Matt Timoko produced an individual effort on Enari Tuala not dissimilar to the one he made on Momirovski a fortnight ago, brushing off his opposite number with ease on his way to the line. 

Tuala was again responsible for the next Raiders try, dropping the ball and relinquishing any momentum his side had built up. The Raiders then went down the field and scored, with Xavier Savage flying above the Knights defenders to score. Fogarty then nailed his first conversion of the day, making the score 14-0. 

From the 30th-36th minute, there were about 5 or 6 errors made, with both sides squandering opportunities equally. The Knights finally held the ball for a bit, and when they scored a try right on half time courtesy of a Ponga dummy half pass to Mann, Raiders fans were starting to sweat, thinking that they'd seen this movie before. 

They had indeed seen this movie before. An 8 point lead was clearly not enough considering their domination throughout the first half, and the Knights made it clear that they weren't going anywhere when they scored a minute after Elliott Whitehead went to the sin bin for a late hit. Ponga put a grubber in that Mat Croker won the race to. 

The Raiders attack was then the most disjointed it's been in weeks, making multiple errors that left the door open for the Knights. 

They paid the price when, after Rapana's pass went into touch, the Knights took the lead in a relatively nonchalant set. Clune got an offload to Barnett in space, who then found Edrick Lee. The former Raider was way too strong for Savage and all of a sudden the Knights had taken the lead. 

Newcastle appeared to come up with a dagger, when Savage again made an error in trying to keep a 40/20 in the field of play, knocking on while diving on the ball and allowing Edrick Lee to pick it up and score untouched. The green machine were saved by the bunker though, who ruled that Tuala had knocked on after Savage did the same. 

Despite that, it looked as though the Knights would hang on. Joe Tapine saved the day by catching the ball and staying in the field of play, but they still had to go 98 metres in 3 minutes.

That's exactly what they did. They were helped by a penalty, but the way Newcastle were defending and Canberra were attacking it seemed as though it'd be too little too late. 

Hudson Young knew this, and decided that he simply wasn't going to lose this game. On the third tackle, he identified Ponga in the defensive line and grubbered ahead for himself, winning the race and scoring the try that tied the game. 

Fogarty made no mistake with the conversion, and the Raiders got out of jail, keeping pace with the Rabbitohs, Dragons, Roosters and Manly in the race for those final two top eight spots.