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Green machine: Raiders sink Souths to move into 2019 grand final

27th September, 2019
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27th September, 2019
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The Canberra Raiders are through to the club’s first grand final in 25 years after a 16-10 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday night.

In a game which was never a brilliant idea of what either team could do offensively, it was the Raiders attack which won them the day as they held on grimly during a second half where they had very little of the footy.

In fact, after what could be described as a fairly even first half between the sides in a tense preliminary final, the Rabbitohs ended with 55 per cent of possession, but just couldn’t find a way to put points on the board soon enough.

The Raiders seemed to have the better of the early running in the game, and made that count when they were able to put first points on the board through Jarrod Croker out wide in the 14th minute of the contest.

That would be all the first half wrote for the Raiders though, with the Rabbitohs managing to stop bombing efforts close to the line for long enough to get one of their own through Dane Gagai.

The teams would enter the halftime break locked up at six points a piece after a physical, fast-paced first half.

Jack Wighton scored the first try of the second half in what was a superb game for the Raiders half, however, that was just about where the fun ended for Canberra.

From there, for the next 20 or more minutes, they were glued to their own line, defending set after set after set. The Rabbitohs, no matter what they tried though, couldn’t find a way to break them, with Damien Cook well and truly off his game and the forwards not penetrating the line nearly enough.

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With that being the case, the tide finally began to turn, although it looked like the Raiders were going to be right up against it when Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was sin-binned with 10:28 remaining in the game.

Instead, the Raiders rallied again, getting their defence to stand up one last time.

It was a Josh Papalii try up the middle which sent the crowds into a frenzy just five minutes from fulltime, and despite a late try to Campbell Graham, the lead was too much for the Bunnies to overcome, who have their season ended on preliminary final weekend for the second season in a row after a fascinating 80 minutes of rugby league.

Final score

Canberra Raiders 16
South Sydney Rabbitohs 10

More to come.

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