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Highlights: Raiders demolish Rabbitohs by 50

Blake Austin will make his return against the Panthers. (Photo: NRL images)
Expert
31st July, 2016
17

The Canberra Raiders have recorded their biggest ever victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs in a 50-point smashing at ANZ Stadium.

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Canberra had over 60 per cent possession, and capitalised on a sloppy Souths outfit throughout the match, running in 10 tries to one in what was a complete team effort.

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Souths made errors left right and centre throughout the game and despite having a couple of stretches where they held all the momentum, possession and territory couldn’t find a way around the defence.

The Raiders forwards paved the way for the big win, with Shannon Boyd, Josh Papalii, Elliot Whitehead and Junior Paulo getting things off to a brilliant start before Clay Priest and Luke Bateman did plenty off the bench.

Their halves, Blake Austin and Aiden Sezer were able to capitalise on all of this and they simply ran away with the contest.

The try scoring opened in just the fifth minute with Elliot Whitehead crossing on the right hand side after a cross field kick which was caught by Jordan Rapana.

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It took 20 minutes for the Raiders to cross again with Rapana finding his way over in the corner. He would get into dummy half and go straight through the line, catching the defensive players napping.

Edrick Lee then ambled over in the corner off an Aiden Sezer grubber kick. It beat the challenge of Jarrod Croker and Lee followed up to touch down in the corner.

Joey Leilua would then cross a couple of minutes later from long range. Adam Reynolds put in a chip kick over the top, with the ball going to Leilua who put the foot down, ran straight through the defensive line and another 50 metres or so to score.

The final play of the half saw another try for the Raiders as Leilua put a grubber kick in for the corner out of dummy half and Rapana would run onto it to score.

At halftime, the score was already 26-0, and it was a case of by how many rather than who.

The second half was more of the same as the Rabbitohs continued to turn the ball over and the Raiders continued to make them pay.

There was another stint during the early second half where the Rabbitohs had all the possession and field territory, forcing repeat sets and while they scored once they just couldn’t find a way to score.

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Jack Wighton would be first to score in the second half though, with Cameron McInnes dropping the ball cold for the Rabbitohs on halfway and Wighton running all the way to score off the error.

The Rabbitohs would finally get themselves on the scoreboard through John Sutton with a crash over effort off a short ball from Damien Cook.

Jarrod Croker would then cross after the Raiders put on a good play to the left, passing the ball through Sezer, Wighton and then an offload to Hodgson before Croker crossed in the corner.

Blake Austin would then score, running straight through a hole in the line from an Aiden Sezer pass before Elliot Whitehead ran onto a ball from Jordan Rapana to grab his second try of the day.

The final try came to Iosia Soliola as the last play of the game, running 50 metres down the touchline to put the icing on the cake.

The Raiders then, moving back into the top four with a massive win over the Rabbitohs.

Final Score
Canberra Raiders 54
South Sydney Rabbitohs 4

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Stats
Tries: Rabbitohs (1), Raiders (10)
Goals: Rabbitohs (0/1), Raiders (7/10)
Possession: Rabbitohs (39%), Raiders (61%)
Completions: Rabbitohs (19/27), Raiders (31/36)
All runs: Rabbitohs (118), Raiders (181)
All run metres: Rabbitohs (1024), Raiders (1872)
Line breaks: Rabbitohs (3), Raiders (7)
Offloads: Rabbitohs (9), Raiders (13)
Tackles: Rabbitohs (359), Raiders (213)
Missed tackles: Rabbitohs (25), Raiders (17)
Penalties: Rabbitohs (3), Raiders (4)
Errors: Rabbitohs (11), Raiders (8)

The Roar’s NRL MVP
3 – Elliot Whitehead
2 – Aiden Sezer
1 – Jordan Rapana

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