Farah says Wests Tigers win among best ever
By Steve Jancetic, 18 Sep 2010
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- Canberra Raiders, NRL, Robbie Farah, Rugby League, Wests Tigers
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Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah hailed his side’s courageous 26-24 semi-final win over Canberra among the best in the club’s history, with the underdogs defying a week of uncertainty to be one win away from an NRL grand final.
Inspired by superstar five-eighth Benji Marshall, in doubt all week with a knee injury suffered in the dying stages of the golden-point loss to the Sydney Roosters, the Tigers set up a preliminary final against St George Illawarra on Saturday week in a rematch of their famous 2005 encounter.
The Tigers went on to win the competition that season, but Farah hailed the victory over the Raiders – only sealed when young Raiders centre Jarrod Croker missed a chance from in front with four minutes remaining that would have sent the game to golden point – one of the best.
A spirited Canberra looked dead and buried when linchpin Terry Campese was stretchered off with a suspected torn ACL in his left knee 23 minutes from time.
“It goes to show how tough a group we are,” Farah said.
“After last week I don’t think anyone gave us a chance coming down here but we put last week behind us and that was pretty tough to do.
“To come down here and get a win away from home with so many injuries backing up after a hundred minutes, it was probably one of the best wins the club has ever had.”
Having missed a number of shots in last week’s epic final, Farah made a beeline for Croker after the game.
“I know what the kid was going through and that’s going to hurt him a bit but I just told him to keep his head up,” Farah said.
“He’s a great young kid, he’s had a great year and I know he’ll bounce back from that so it’s going to hurt him for a bit but, like I said to him, he’s a quality player and he’ll be back.”
Marshall was brilliant with a leading hand in three of his side’s four tries.
He took all of seven minutes to prove to everyone in the record 26,746-strong crowd there was nothing wrong with his legs, or his hands, sending Chris Heighington over untouched with a trademark flick pass.
It may have taken the Raiders until the 11th minute to finally get into the opposition half but the wait proved worth it, Bronson Harrison beginning his abuse of the Tigers’ left side defence as he rumbled over to lock up the scores.
Marshall returned serve with a deft no-look pass for Gareth Ellis to score, the Tigers kicking out by two converted tries on 20 minutes when a scrum move allowed Lote Tuqiri to show he still had a bit enough toe to out-sprint young gun Josh Dugan on a 60 metre run to the line.
Chris Lawrence and Tuqiri need not have bothered with their tackles on Harrison as he set up Joel Monaghan to have the home side trailing 18-12 at the break.
Lawrence – back less than three weeks after breaking his jaw – scored again to give the Tigers breathing space before Campese’s ultimately tragic run to set up Trevor Thurling’s try got the Raiders back in the game.
An innocuous penalty allowed the Tigers to establish an eight-point lead before Canberra’s Alan Tongue made up for the absence of his fellow co-captain with a burrowing try to set up a frantic finish.
“That second half spirit of the players – we got within two points to go into extra time,” Canberra coach David Furner said.
“You’ve got to take your opportunities and we probably came up with a few errors there where we didn’t put pressure on them … I was very proud of that second half.”
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The Crowd Says (5) | Page 1 of Comments
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- Canberra Raiders, NRL, Robbie Farah, Rugby League, Wests Tigers
September 18th 2010 @ 8:29am
Spiro Zavos said | September 18th 2010 @ 8:29am | Report comment
If ever a player won a big match by the power of one that player was Benji Marshall. He gave a master class on how to set up situations where his runners could make great gains.
What I particularly liked about his play is that he did right at the start of the match when the defence, in theory at least, was at its most bruising. But Benji ran to and across the line, inviting the charge from a Raiders defender out of the line, before slipping a pass to a runner in a hole. The time to make an impact is that the beginning of a match, not at the end when the cause might already have been lost.
Lote Tuqiri also showed tremendous speed to race away for his try. His tackling and catching of the high ball were pretty ordinary though.
Can the Tigers go all the way? It will help if Benji stays on the field. The Raiders looked leaderless when Terry Campese was injured. The Tigers would probably be the same without Mr Magic Marshall.
September 18th 2010 @ 9:54am
Vinay Verma said | September 18th 2010 @ 9:54am | Report comment
Spiro, I endorse everything you say about Benji. He was inspirational. He will have to reproduce the same next week and could do with a little more help from Farah,who I thought looked tired.
Ayshford will have to step up,too, for in Cooper and Gasnier he has two classy practioners to contain.
I thought Lote was industrious with his tackling and go forward. Maybe your comment was a bit tongue in cheek.
September 18th 2010 @ 1:52pm
berra boy said | September 18th 2010 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
it was a great night. No fairytale ending but fantastic to be there.
Marshall seemed so untroubled by his leg I began to wonder if it was his mental state, not leg that was the problem last weekend…
The only sour note (and it was a very very minor sour note) was Lote’s incessent antics towards the crowd after the game. Considering other than one, maybe two runs down the wing he was comprehensively outplayed by Daniel Vito I would have though he would pull his head in.
As a long time fan of Tim Sheens coaching, I think they can go all the way. He has instilled the same “no one thinks we can win” siege mentality that the Raiders fed off under his charge. He is a master coach.
Good luck to the Tigers this year – they were fantastic. Good luck to the Raiders for the next 5 years – building something special (legally) down here
September 18th 2010 @ 10:55pm
King of the Gorganites said | September 18th 2010 @ 10:55pm | Report comment
great win by the tigers. keep it coming.
also, great win by the roosters. but it has to be said that it was a disappointing crowd. roosters truly are the wrose supported team in the nrl.
September 21st 2010 @ 1:47pm
The Natural said | September 21st 2010 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
Well well well, four words go out to Herman, The Tank ,Weinrage etc etc: