BY ROB

The Canberra Raiders came into this game staring down the barrel of six straight losses. To compound their situation they were without their iconic lock Simaima Taufa, Hollie Mae Dodd and Mackenzie Wiki. A loss here would have almost certainly consigned them to a spoon death spiral alongside the terminally suffering Wests Tigers.

This game followed the pattern of the last five weeks for the first two thirds of play. The Raiders took the lead through two tries, the first at the 10th minute to Maddie Bartlett, who simply walked it in on the left edge, followed by a barnstorming effort by Grace Kemp four minutes later where she simply dragged one tackler with her while fending off another.

The Dragons struck back with a try to Tegan Berry, the Red V fullback running sideways before affecting a 90° degree turn straight for the try line. Raiders defenders attempted to wrap her and the ball up, but they were too late.

Canberra hit back just three minutes later, when ZT laid on a crisp flat pass to Soliola, who then had the presence of mind to launch a Harbour bridge ball to Shak Tungai on the right wing for a relatively easy four pointer.

The Raiders looked to be in control, but six minutes from the break that sinking feeling returned. Apii Nicholls failed to defuse a Dragons bomb which was gathered up by Shenae Lindill who then wrong footed Tungai on her way to score.

Canberra desperately needed to reach the break, but the Dragons came again, this time with a short ball to their lock Alexis Tauaneai who crashed through the Raiders line defence, the conversion locking up the scores at 16 all.

The Raiders found themselves down a player just three minutes into the second half after Kere Matua was binned for a hip drop. The accompanying penalty got the Dragons in range for another short ball effort, with Tauaneai scoring an almost exact replay of her try from the first half.

Canberra’s misery intensified when Raecene McGregor launched a right side cutout pass that discombobulated the Green Machine’s defensive assignments, with the ensuing chaos giving Kasey Reh enough broken field to dart through and score.

Matua returned from the bin and was immediately benched in favour of Kemp, and finally the game started to swing back towards the Raiders. Grace laid down a platform of punishing runs through the middle, one of which got ZT into perfect creative space to drop a pass back inside to Quinlan who was travelling on the diagonal behind her.

Three minutes later Kemp decided she wanted a double, this time hauling at least five opposition players with her, none of them able to contain the ball. A Bobbi Law error moments later saw the Milk in prime position again, this time capitalising off the Dragons failing to play to the whistle. Taking advantage of the opposition’s inattention the Raiders pushed left with numbers, culminating with Bartlett crossing for her seventh career double.

Then Amelia Pasikala arrived.

I have to be honest that Pasikala didn’t have the greatest debut last week. She’d been brought in to replace a struggling Kelly-Synes, and while she went alright with a few runs she looked almost timid in defence, as though she was subconsciously aware she might flatten someone if she put her all into it. Her attempted tackles were mostly hand grabs and soft third player in efforts.

In a twenty minute period she blew this debut effort away. In one set alone she flattened Dragons players with excellent one on one tackles (my hazy memory has her making at least 4-5 really good shots during this stint). Her running ticked up a notch too, easily reaching or breaking ten metres with each carry.

And then came her true moment to shine.

A strong Kemp run finished with an offload to Quinlan who got it away to Pasikala. 25 metres out from the line with tackles in hand most players and fans would’ve settled for big carry, but Pasikala had other ideas. With smaller, faster support outside on her left she set off for the line, shaping like the pass was a foregone conclusion. At the 16 metre mark she then threw a dummy so good it made three Dragons defenders look like toddlers tracking the flight path of a choc chip biscuit, and while they were recovering their wits she barreled past them on the inside, going over untouched for a first Raiders try.

With less than a minute to go Tegan Berry kicked for herself, beat several Raiders and scored under the posts. Thankfully it was all in vain, the clock running out with Canberra in front 38-34.

So much of this win was built around the forwards stepping up in the absence of Taufa and Dodd. Kemp and Holyman ran for 177m and 125m respectively, each breaking 60m in post-contact work. Kemp had a crazy 14 tackle breaks to her name. Holyman, Soliola and Chante tackled well in the middle. The Chante/Barnes shuffle paid dividends, with Barnes having more time to manipulate play from dummy half (Coach Borthwick is going to have to make some choices when Taufa returns).

Next week the Raiders return home to host the Eels, and they do so with the confidence of a fresh win and hopefully a full complement of troops. While finals are now definitely beyond their reach this season let’s hope they can wrap up the season in style.

Rob is the best human I know so you should follow him on Twitter here. Or you can do us a solid and like our page on Facebook, or share this on social media. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.

Feature image courtesy of Raiders.com.au