Jolly green giants put Penrith out to pasture
CANBERRA Tries: Goals: PENRITH Tries: Goals: Referees: Crowd: CANBERRA’S mountain men have kept their hopes of ending their 22-year premiership drought alive after surviving a second-half scare to beat Penrith 22-12.
The Raiders are now one game away from a grand final appearance, booking themselves a trip to Melbourne to play the minor premiers on Saturday after eliminating Penrith.
The win was soured with back-rower Elliott Whitehead placed on report for a high tackle on Isaah Yeo.
Canberra’s big men dominated the Panthers, helping Canberra race to an 18-0 lead early in the second half.
A Matt Moylan-inspired Penrith comeback was not enough to snatch the lead back, despite the Panthers racing in two tries in eight minutes to trail by eight.
Josh Hodgson and Blake Austin were obvious important inclusions to the Raiders squad. Hodgson limped from the field just seven days ago with an ankle injury that looked certain to not only rub him out of last night’s game but threatened his season.
Hodgson showed no ill-effects of the injury, playing 71 unbroken minutes and finishing with 30 tackles. A head- knock prevented him from playing the full game. Austin struggled at times with his injured hand in front of 21,498 people at GIO Stadium.
To make matters worse for Austin, he limped through parts of the first half with a leg injury. But before that, he made an immediate impact, scoring the Raiders’ first try after 11 minutes, after the Raiders received another set with a contentious call about the advantage not being played.
Taking advantage of slipping Penrith defenders Yeo and Suaia Matagi, Austin scored after stepping off his right foot. The Raiders fiveeighth went straight to the sideline to have further padding added to an already heavily strapped hand after the try.
Poor last-play options helped ease the pressure on the Panthers. The home side extended their lead to 12 when Jordan Rapana crossed for a club record-equalling 22nd try. Rapana again combined with Joey Leilua, who put in a grubber kick for his winger to score.
Canberra could have had three first-half tries but skipper Jarrod Croker was correctly denied a try after attempting a one-on-one strip on Bryce Cartwright despite two men being in the tackle, before racing away under the posts.
The Panthers could not have started the second half any more poorly. Sitaleki Akauola was penalised and placed on report in the first tackle after the break for a high shot on Jordan Rapana.
The Raiders forced a dropout from the penalty before Paul Vaughan easily brushed aside Trent Merrin to have the Panthers on the backfoot.
Penrith failed to recover from Vaughan’s break with a wide shift creating enough space for Croker to score to extend their lead to 18.
A Moylan 25m cutout pass midway through the second half produced Penrith’s first points via an unmarked Tyrone Peachey to close the gap.