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The Canberra Raiders have booked their spot in the top four and recorded their eighth straight victory, defeating the Parramatta Eels at GIO Stadium in a ten point come from behind victory.
» Re-live all the action with our live blog
Brenko Lee had a four-try effort, three of them in the second half to bring the Raiders back from a 14-point halftime gap, his combination with Jarrod Croker proving deadly.
The Raiders though, undoubtedly missed Josh Hodgson and they got lucky the Eels switched off on both ends of the park during the second half.
Their attack, particuarly early, seemed to lack any threat with Aiden Sezer and Blake Austin’s combination struggling badly. That picked up during the second half though to prove they could play without Hodgson.
After their forwards were dominated during the first half, they managed to come back in the second, and proved to be the catalyst for the game to turn around, along with Croker’s fantastic passing ability.
Errors also were a major talking point from the game, with the Raiders only making five compared to the Eels 15.
The Eels opened the scoring through Michael Jennings in just the fifth minute with Jeff Robson putting in a grubber towards the goal posts, Blake Austin making a meal of it and Jennings scoring one of the easiest tries he will ever score.
Semi Radradra would be the next to score out wide, with a fantastic play that once again involved Robson and then Jennings, who drew the defenders in from the wing and threw a pin-point ball for Radradra.
Their third try in a row would be scored down the left edge once again as Clint Gutherson put Semi Radradra around the defence and through the line, all the way to Wighton where he linked up with Bevan French who streaked away to score.
After having one try disallowed, Brenko Lee would get the Raiders on the board with a try in the corner off an exceptional pass from Jarrod Croker.
The second half wouldn’t see the Eels score a single try though with the Raiders running on five.
The Raiders looked to have started the second half similar to how the first half kicked off, but proving the statement one play can turn a game, Joseph Leilua ran from dummy half 30 metres out, linked with Jarrod Croker on the fly and he would go straight through the line and around everyone to score.
Lee would then score three tries in a 16 minute period. The first of those came off a deflected kick that saw the Raiders get a lucky bounce of the ball, the second off a beautiful sweeping play left – the final pass coming from Croker and the third thanks to a bit of his own work as he managed to benefit from some nice passing, stepping around Michael Gordon to score.
Iosia Soliola would put the game to bed about ten minutes from time, running onto a ball that Josh Papalii had received after a bomb. He put the foot down, set up a 2-on-1 and no one was stopping Soliola when he got his hands on it.
In the end then, the Raiders with a dominant win over the Eels as they continue their march to September.
Final Score
Canberra Raiders 28
Parramatta Eels 18