Raiders Outlast the Rabbitohs

The Canberra Raiders have condemned the South Sydney Rabbitohs to their 12th loss in a row to start the season with a hard fought 24-22 win tonight in their round 13 match at a chilly Canberra Stadium.

The home side looked to be in total control of the match when leading 18-6 at half time, but were forced to endure some nervous moments in the second half before holding on to claim the two competition points that temporarily lifts them into equal eighth on the NRL ladder.

With new recruit David Peachey in the side Souths started the game with a previously unseen aggression and it paid dividends almost immediately with centre Paul Mellor crossing for the opening try of the game.

After conceding the first try of the match Canberra knuckled down to the task and the result was a try to half back Todd Carney who dived over next to the posts after a nice offload from hooker Simon Woolford.

Full back Clinton Schifcofske reached a points scoring milestone with his first conversion of the night as his successful shot at goal gave him 1500 points for his career (6-4).

A rash of penalties against the Raiders at the quarter hour mark gave Souths the chance to level the match and half back Joe Williams made no mistake with his penalty goal slotting it straight over to level the scores at 6-6.

Errors from both teams in the following sets of six made for a scrappy encounter, but Canberra were able to break out of their funk in the 25th minute when five eighth Lincoln Withers produced a superb pass as he was falling to the ground to send winger David Howell over for his first of the night.

Schifcofske made it two from two with the boot to give the home side a converted try lead (12-6).

Canberra made it two tries in four minutes when lock Alan Tongue scored his seventh try of the season after receiving a pinpoint pass from Carney to race away and score untouched between the posts to send the Raiders into half time ahead 18-6.

The Rabbitohs began the second half much the same as they had started the first, but this time they were able to sustain their momentum for a little longer scoring tries through Williams and interchange player Shannan McPherson to draw the visitors within two points of the Raiders heading into the final 15 minutes of the match (18-16).

Not wanting to be the first team to lose the Bunnies seemed to lift Canberra and in the 74th minute they made sure they wouldn’t be with super-sub Marshall Chalk scoring to give the home side a comfortable eight point buffer (24-16).

Even with their 12th straight loss assured South Sydney tried hard all the way to the finish and were rewarded with a try in the dying seconds to prop Peter Cusack to make the final score line 24-22.

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