The Raiders have made it four wins from their last five matches with a 32-18 victory over a lacklustre Gold Coast Titans at GIO Stadium.
They led 20-0 at half-time after capitalising on a glut of possession to score four first-half tries. The Titans missed far too many tackles in a poor defensive performance.
The Raiders’ first try came in their first set, with Sia Soliola strolling through untouched from close range after some poor line defence from the Titans.
Backrower Joseph Tapine scored another soft try untouched in the 14th minute after running on to a ball from Blake Austin.
The Raiders scored their third try just two minutes later in the restart set, after Michael Gordon couldn’t defuse a last tackle bomb and Jarrod Croker picked up the crumbs to score.
Their fourth try came in the 24th minute when a good set play created an overlap for Nic Cotric to score out wide.
To cap off a miserable first half for the Titans, they lost both Jai Arrow (back injury) and Jarrod Wallace (struggling with a virus) for the rest of the match.
The Titans needed to score first in the second half to make a game of it and they did in the 45th minute when Ryan James grounded a Mitch Rein grubber. They were in again four minutes later when Kevin Proctor regathered an Ash Taylor grubber to score.
That made the score 20-12 and Raiders’ fans must have had flashbacks to the Round 1 encounter between the two teams when the Titans reeled in an 18-point deficit to beat them by two points.
That match was the first of three heartbreaking losses by two points or less for the Raiders, which got their season off to slow start.
But Shannon Boyd steadied the Raiders’ ship when he charged on to the ball from close range and used his size to barge his way over. He made a real impact in attack when he came on the field for the Raiders.
Jordan Rapana put the game out of the Titans’ reach five minutes later when he showed his great finishing skills to score in the corner after receiving a deft flick pass from Joey Leilua.
Max King scored his first NRL try with four minutes to go to make the scoreline a bit more respectable for the Titans.
The win keeps the Raiders in touch with the top 8, while the Titans have some work to do in both attack and defence after slumping to their fourth straight loss.
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