Raiders repulse stilted Warriors

TWO tries from Canberra Raiders centre Joey Leilua sunk the Warriors in Canberra night, ending their two-game winning streak.

The Raiders won 20-8, scoring 14 points in the second half while the Warriors never came close to adding to their tally.

While it was the first time the Warriors had lost when Kieran Foran was playing for them, this shouldn’t go down as a dreadful performance.

The Raiders posted 42 points against the Titans in their previous game, so there was no doubting their attacking capabilities, but for the second week in a row the Warriors showed they’re making improvements defensively, albeit too slowly to win this game.

Attack though, has once again become a significant issue, even though they started the game well.

Josh Hodgson stripped the ball off Kieran Foran a few metres from the Warriors’ line four minutes into the game, which put the defence under some early pressure.

But the Warriors withstood the attack and a couple of minutes later got on the board themselves as Ryan Hoffman caught a bomb put up by Foran, beating Jack Wighton in the air and got a try.

The Warriors kept the heat on the Raiders after that try, but couldn’t convert that into points while the Raiders responded when Leilua brushed off a tackle from Ken Maumalo to score in the 20th minute.

Shaun Johnson kicked a penalty two minutes later and tried a few times later in the half to spark something on attack, to no avail, although it took an outstanding tackle from Jarrod Croker to hold up Roger Tuivasa-Sheck with three minutes left in the half after Johnson put the fullback into space.

In the 50th minute Croker goaled a penalty for the Raiders to square the game up at 8-8 and eight minutes later the Raiders were in a great attacking position when Maumalo knocked on a high bomb.

It meant the Raiders got to start at set on the Warriors’ 10m line and they made the most of it with Leilua scoring on the right edge, slipping inside a hole in the defence between Maumalo and Solomone Kata.

The second half continued to be one where the Warriors were short on attacking opportunities and high on mistakes.