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Highlights: Canberra canter into prelims after pumping Penrith

Jordan Rapana is a delight to watch in the NRL. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
Expert
17th September, 2016
23

The Canberra Raiders have booked a date with the Melbourne Storm are through to the NRL preliminary finals are a commanding performance at GIO Stadium to take a ten point win over the Penrith Panthers.

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The Raiders maintained their dominance for most of the contest, and for the visitors it was a struggle to get into the contest in the first half, and then to capitalise on their opportunities in the second, which they struggled to do badly.

Canberra led their game through the middle of the park and with that dominance were able to pounce all over the Panthers, leading the game 18-0 at one point before there was a comeback of sorts that just wasn’t quite strong enough.

Their forwards were led in a big way by Junior Paulo who seemed to mirror Jason Taumalolo of the North Queensland Cowboys last night in that he always looked dangerous and was nearly impossible to tackle at times.

Blake Austin and Josh Hodgson being back in the side was a massive help for the Raiders in attack, and they flowed for the full 80 minutes on the ball despite making a number of errors – it was nowhere near as many as Penrith and they were able to capitalise on their opportunities.

Arguably though, the biggest weapon for Canberra was Jack Wighton who had a brilliant game on both ends of the park, setting up plays, making plays and being as safe as a house at the back.

With that firing on all cylinders, even a quiet period during the second half when the Panthers scored their only points of the match with back-to-back tries they were able to overcome it and close out the match.

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For Penrith they simply struggled to get any flow to their attack. While the forward pack stood up at various times, they were out-muscled and made a lot of silly decisions which led to countless errors, and frustrating ones at that early in the tackle count which let the Raiders off the hook defensively time and time again.

Nathan Cleay and Bryce Cartwright simply didn’t take control of the attack and their persistence with running the ball on the last tackle was painful to watch as they came up short numerous times, despite scoring their two tries doing exactly that.

Matt Moylan, like the halves, struggled to control the game with any real flare and their outside backs also failed to get involved enough to get Penrith out of trouble.

The scoring opened in the 12th minute with Canberra on the attack as Blake Austin got a pass from Josh Hodgson, threw a massive dummy to the right and then stepped back through the defence to score.

The second try was an extravagant long range one with Joseph Leilua making a break and then chipping a kick into the in goal out of a tackle for Rapana to run the rest of the way and score the try.

At halftime, it was the Raiders 12-0 but there was plenty more action in the second half as the game opened up somewhat.

It didn’t take long for the Raiders to add to their total after the break, with a penalty in the first set, then a drop out before Jarrod Croker crossed in the corner off a wonderful play set up by nice passes from Aiden Sezer and Jack Wighton.

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From there, it was end-to-end play bungled by errors before the Panthers finally gained some momentum and scored their opening points in the 59th minute with Tyrone Peachey crossing off a wonderful long ball from Matt Moylan.

The Panthers would set up what looked like it was going to be a cracking finish just minutes later when Dallin Watene-Zelezniak scored off a very scrappy play in the corner but it wasn’t to be as Croker slotted a pair of penalty goals in the last ten minutes to end the season for Penrith.

The Raiders then, with a dominant performance tonight but they now turn their attention to the Melbourne Storm away from home next weekend which will be far from easy with a spot in the grand final at stake.

Final Score
Canberra Raiders 22
Penrith Panthers 12

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