Savage Raiders take switched off Titans to task

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Canberra Raiders v Gold Coast Titans

A Xavier Savage hattrick has delivered a much needed bounce-back for the Canberra Raiders as they took care of business against the Titans by 16 points in Canberra.

Off the back of a missed opportunity from the Raiders, the Titans got a penalty and immediately went down their left hand side inside the opening five minutes. Some nice shape from Kieran Foran injected AJ Brimson through a poor read from Canberra's bad right edge and Jojo Fifita backed up in support for the opener to make it 6-0.

Off the back of some poor discipline, the Raiders kept sustained pressure on the Titans defence. Hudson Young looked to capitalise on it with a grubber kick. It was heavy off the boot, but Seb Kris didn't give up on the play, batting it back into the field of play and Savelio Tamale was the beneficiary after 13 minutes.

Ten minutes later, the Titans were made to pay a significant price for Foran's kick sailing out on the full. Some terrific pass selection from Kaeo Weekes and Zac Hosking found Matt Timoko who went through a yawning gap to give the Raiders the lead. At the 26 minute mark, Zac Hosking leapt above Alofiana Khan-Pereria to take possession, fling the ball back to Josh Papali'i who found Xavier Savage to open up a six point gap.

Despite the three tries, Canberra didn't look comfortable in the game. After Jaimin Jolliffe was denied a play before, Jayden Campbell kicked early and Chris Randall went to ground it but was quickly chalked off after the Bunker revealed he bounced the ball.

Despite the disappointment of failing to get over the line, the visitors got their reward when Tino Fa'asuamaleaui stood in the tackle of three Raiders defenders. The QLD representative was somehow able to unload to Josiah Pahulu and after a rough start to the season, he got over for his maiden NRL try. A bit of explosive speed from Weekes beat Foran on the outside to break away before he finds Hosking to go over to retake the lead for the Green Machine in the shadows of half-time to lead by a converted try.

The second half started disastrously for the visitors. A bomb was allowed to be taken by Savage who beat Brimson and the cover defence to go all the way to score his second try. The bad luck continued to follow the Titans around. A clever kick from Ethan Strange was put down by Tony Francis and it was scooped up by Young to go over for his ninth try of the season.

The Raiders had three tries in 11 minutes to start the second stanza. Timoko went over for a second after he and Weekes did brilliantly to put Savage into space before finding the New Zealand international to make it 34-12. Gold Coast had to be next to score and they were just shy of the hour mark when Foran dug deep into the line to find Fifita for his second try.

The Titans had to endure a lot of defence late in the second half on their own line and eventually the pressure appeared to take its toll. Simi Sasagi came back against the grain to split the defence to slam the football down. Unfortunately, the Bunker had different ideas and denied the try for obstruction.

Fortunately, the Raiders completed a sensational team try which went from sideline to sidleline, winger to winger and Savage collected his hattrick. There was some consolation which came through Mo Fotuaika who crossed for the first time since the final round of the 2021 season.