Raiders celebrate golden Sunday

The Canberra Raiders have bounced back from three weeks of morale damaging losses to score a 42-12 win over a heavily depleted North Queensland Cowboys at GIO Stadium in front of 8,400 fans.

The opening 20 minutes of the match was a poor affair with both sides having terrible ball control with more passes being dropped than what was being caught.

The Cowboys were the better of the two sides in the opening 20 minutes with the opening points coming through Ethan Lowe who barged his way over.

Soon after, the Raiders began to get their ball control secure with Jack Wighton taking advantage and scoring out wide. The Raiders then extended their lead with a try to Paul Vaughan who barged his way through and reached out at full stretch to plant the ball on the line.

Jarrod Croker then added two more points for the Raiders and then on the stroke of the halftime break the Raiders crossed for another try with Jack Wighton getting his second try in the corner.

The Raiders took a 12 point lead to the break but that lead didn't last long into the second half with Curtis Rona getting the luck of a perfect camera angle for the Video Referees to award him the try after onfield referee Jared Maxwell ruled a No Try.

The close margin didn't last long either, with Terry Campese taking advantage of some shocking defence from the Cowboys and he put Jarrad Kennedy through in the corner to score.

From there, points ran on tap for the Raiders with tries coming to Reece Robinson and then in the last 5 minutes, tries came to Jarrod Croker who leapt magnificently to score and then a 100m effort to Anthony Milford.

The Cowboys will welcome back their origin stars for a tough clash against the Melbourne Storm next Saturday night in Townsville whilst it gets harder again for the Raiders with a clash up against the defending premiers, the Sydney Roosters.

CANBERRA RAIDERS (42)
Tries: Jack Wighton (2), Jarrod Croker (2), Paul Vaughan, Jarrad Kennedy, Reece Robinson
Field Goals:
Conversions: Jarrod Croker (6/7)
Penalty Goals: Jarrod Croker (1/1)

NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS (12)
Tries: Ethan Lowe, Curtis Rona
Field Goals:
Conversions: Ethan Lowe (2/2)
Penalty Goals:

LATE MAIL | Just cosmetic changes for each side, the hosts lose Matt McIlwrick off the extended bench meaning Shannon Boyd gets his chance in jersey #18. For the visiting Cowboys, Asiata and Hoare drop off the bench, with just one additional change seeing Jason Taumalolo drop to the bench and Glenn Hall to start in the second row. Kickoff 3:00pm AEST.

Kick Off not too far away at Canberra Stadium in front of a smallish crowd in the nations capital

The Green Machine playing over the loudspeakers in Canberra may lead to some false advertising as they are in a special gold jersey

1: Play underway down at GIO Stadium

1: PENALTY COWBOYS - Takes just 35 seconds for Gerard Sutton to extend his arm against the Raiders, Cowboys find touch on halfway

3: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
David Shillington makes an unforced error.
David Shillington drops the ball on his own 30m and gives the Cowboys great position

4: For a second Gerard Sutton ruled a Canberra knock-on but gets a tip and it ends up being a turnover for the Raiders

5: PENALTY RAIDERS -Raiders get their first penalty for a high tackle

5: PENALTY RAIDERS - Curtis Rona penalised for slowing down the play the ball on the 4th tackle, 10m out from his own line

7: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Jack Wighton makes an unforced error.
Canberra create a 3 on 2 overlap but just like last week they spill the ball

8: Robert Lui puts a kick into the corner and its cleaned up by Anthony Milford who throws a long ball to Reece Robinson who inturns throws a long one out to Sauiluma all infront of their own posts

10: Robert Lui goes high and for a moment, the Cowboys look like they could score but without JT the last tackle option doesn't fire

11: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Glenn Hall makes an unforced error.
Glenn Hall looks for the offload but just can't keep the ball in his hand and its dropped

12: PENALTY RAIDERS - Raiders get their third penalty for Cowboys being offside

13: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Jarrad Kennedy makes an unforced error.
ANOTHER ERROR - Jarrad Kennedy the man who drops the ball for Canberra

15: Some good work from Michael Morgan sees him evade a tackle but then nothing happens

16: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Tariq Sims makes an unforced error.
Tariq Sims drops the ball just over halfway

16: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Reece Robinson makes an unforced error.
Anybody in Canberra have a catching program? The Canberra Raiders will call with Reece Robinson dropping another simple on

18: PENALTY COWBOYS - A Poor tactic from the Cowboys sees them put a kick in, its lost by the Raiders and then they are penalised for being offside

19: TRY NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Scored by Ethan Lowe. Kick to come.
Ethan Lowe goes 1 on 1 with Josh McCrone and the North Queenslander is too strong with the TRY

20: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Conversion attempt by Ethan Lowe successful.
Ethan Lowe converts his own try from next to the posts

21: Some bad defence sees Michael Morgan find a little bit of space but nothing comes from it

23: PENALTY RAIDERS - Gerard Sutton not happy with the speed the Cowboys are leaving the ruck and he penalises them for it

25: VIDEO REFEREE: Checking a possible Jack Wighton try - Gerard Sutton says try, Checking obstructions

26: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jack Wighton. Kick to come.
Jack Wighton gets the Video Referees tick of approval and scores the 4 points

26: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker puts it through the uprights and levels the scores

28: Canberra starting to hold the ball and make some good metres in attack

28: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Tariq Sims makes an unforced error.
Tariq Sims makes an error whilst trying to play the ball to quickly & gets no sympathy from Gerard Sutton

30: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Paul Vaughan makes an unforced error.
Well that's another one - the Raiders put down another pass

30: Huge play from Shaun Fensom to charge the kick down and he cleans it up

31: A Great ball from Jack Wighton is met with a great tackle from Antonio Winterstein

32: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Paul Vaughan. Kick to come.
Paul Vaughan puts the head down and forces his way through and stretches out like a swimmer for the wall to plant the ball down on the line off a great offload from Dane Tilse

33: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker has zero problems from in front

35: Raiders now looking the goods - making good metres in attack

36: PENALTY RAIDERS - Robert Lui penalised for having a hand on the ball

37: PENALTY RAIDERS - Back to back penalties for them, Jason Taumalolo the man penalised for being offside

37: Tariq Sims puts a Raiders player on his head and gets put ON REPORT

37: Cowboys are on the ropes and Canberra decide to let them off with the decision to go for the 2 points

38: SUCCESSFUL PENALTY GOAL CANBERRA RAIDERS
Penalty goal attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker has no problems to the left of the upright in extending the margin to 8

39: Raiders create some space but end up throwing the ball straight to Robert Lui

40: Ray Thompson goes high and across field but is a nothing kick that Jarrod Croker easily taking it

40: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jack Wighton. Kick to come.
The Raiders create some more good space outwide and Jack Wighton holds the pass and he scores over in the right corner

40: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker unsuccessful.
Jarrod Croker pushes the kick across the face of the posts and the margin doesn't change

40: Well after a very monotonous first 20 minutes of the match - the match picked up in the second 20 with the Raiders taking a half time lead

40: Both sides back on the field at GIO Stadium in the nations capital

41: Gerard Sutton calls time on for the second 40 - Raiders with the first set of six

41: Some fantastic work from the Reece Robinson to fling the ball back infield but its Kane Linnett who's cleaned it up

42: VIDEO REFEREE - Checking a possible Cowboys TRY - Jared Maxwell says NO TRY

42: TRY NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Scored by Curtis Rona. Kick to come.
So Curtis Rona is very lucky there, a good camera angle shows he got the ball to the ground over in the western corner

42: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Conversion attempt by Ethan Lowe successful.
Ethan Lowe puts a beautiful kick in from the sideline to convert the try

46: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jarrad Kennedy. Kick to come.
Well that was from nothing - Terry Campese throws a dummy and goes straight through before passing it to Jarrad Kennedy over in the corner

47: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker gets it inside the goalposts from the corner to restore the halftime margin

48: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Paul Vaughan makes an unforced error.
Cowboys get their invitation back to attack - Paul Vaughan makes another error

48: Jarrod Croker takes a magnificent take in the air before being forced back into his own ingoal after great Cowboys defence

50: Josh McCrone goes across field with the kick but it goes out on the full

52: Anthony Milford takes the Cowboys kick but then gets pushed right back into his own ingoal

53: VIDEO REFEREE - Gerard Sutton wants to send this upstairs - NO TRY is the call - checking the restart and a possible grounding

54: NO TRY is the call from the Video Referees

55: PENALTY RAIDERS - Cowboys penalised for being offside after an offload was ruled to be touched

56: PENALTY COWBOYS - A mistake by Jarrad Kennedy in the decoy run and Josh McCrone runs behind him and its an obstruction

59: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Ashton Sims makes an unforced error.
Ashton Sims gives us his best quarterback impression and throws a forward pass

61: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Reece Robinson. Kick to come.
Reece Robinson scores over in the corner after some good attack

62: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker hooks the conversion round and goes through the goal posts

63: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Michael Morgan makes an unforced error.
Michael Morgan drops the ball in a good tackle 45m out from his own line

65: Well that was an understandably bad kick there from the Raiders, David Shillington was the man who kicked the ball

66: Robert Lui puts the kick into the corner again and its up to Anthony Milford to work it out - the Cowboys straight line defence stops him from going to far

67: Mitch Cornish is finally on the field for his NRL debut after the debacle in 2013, and gets a good early kick away

67: PENALTY COWBOYS - Jarrad Kennedy penalised for having his hand on the ball

68: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Ashton Sims makes an unforced error.
Ashton Sims is the man who drops the ball for the Cowboys this time

70: UNFORCED ERROR NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Matthew Wright makes an unforced error.
Another mistake from the Cowboys, gives the Raiders another set of six on the Cowboys line

71: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Mitch Cornish makes an unforced error.
Mitch Cornish throws a quick ball to Josh McCrone that on the advice of the touch judge is ruled as forward

72: A good kick from the Cowboys traps Anthony Milford in goal

77: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jarrod Croker. Kick to come.
Jarrod Croker gets a reward for his fantastic leaps down the other end of the field with another one to score the try

78: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker converts his own try from next to the uprights

78: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jarrod Croker. Kick to come.
Well the Raiders weren't done here - they go 100m and Anthony Milford puts the cherry on top of the Raiders Golden Sunday

78: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker converts it from in front to extend the lead

79: Looks like we just saw Ricky Stuart smile - one of the weirdest sights in NRL

80: Jarrad Kennedy goes down the touchline and initially beats Michael Morgan but then the Cowboys fullback puts him into touch

80: FULL TIME at GIO Stadium - The Canberra Raiders have scored a 42-12 victory over the Nth Qld Cowboys