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The Canberra Raiders have set up a mouth-watering grand final rematch against the Sydney Roosters last week, after overcoming a slow start to cruise past Cronulla in their elimination final this evening.
Despite scoring the first try of the game through Joseph Tapine, they were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball and fell behind following tries to Ronaldo Mulitalo and Blayke Brailey.
The two Sharks tries didn’t tell the full story of their utter dominance in the first half. They had a commanding share of possession and territory, with Canberra only tackled seven times in the opposition half in the opening 40 minutes.
It took a length-of-the-field intercept try from George Williams on the stroke of half time for the Raiders to get back in the match, the English halfback perfectly reading a Wade Graham pass before managing to out-pace Scott Sorensen to cross out wide.
That try cut the Sharks’ lead back to just four points at the break, a margin which didn’t at all indicate how much they’d enjoyed the better of the play.
The second half was a different story, however, with a Jack Wighton double, Williams’ second and another to Elliott Whitehead seeing them move ahead 32-14, before a late consolation try to Sione Katoa made it 32-20.
Wighton’s first, in addition to turning the match well into Canberra’s favour, was controversial. The five-eighth scampered over after taking a quick tap from a penalty, but Graham had called for a captain’s challenge before Wighton put boot to ball.
However, referee Grant Atkins denied the challenge, and while Cronulla’s effort didn’t lack, they never looked like replicating their first half dominance. Once Wighton crossed again soon after, and then later set up Williams’ second try, the game was all but over.
Canberra will now play the Roosters in a rematch of the last year’s decider, while the Sharks are done and dusted for 2020.
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