BY ROB

Records tumbled on Saturday at Canberra Stadium. Unfortunately for the Raiders they all favoured the visiting Eels, who served the hapless Green Machine another hiding a week after a ruthless Sharks side punished them 56-6. This time the score was 46-12, which was somehow equally depressing.

The Raiders couldn’t even make it to the end of the first set before stuffing things up. Toiling down the left edge they made it to the fourth tackle before a slightly spicy pass from Zehara Temara found Monalisa Soliola napping. The Steeden popped out of Monalisa’s hands and the pain kicked in.

The Eels were without mercy, something that was compounded by the Raiders being without skill or coordination. 14 errors and 7 penalties conceded meant Canberra spent most of their time simply ushering Parramatta down to their red zone, where the Eels willingly set up camp and went about building their best ever victory.

Canberra’s woes were compounded by the fact that Temara was clearly not operating at 100%. You don’t have to be a club physio to see that she’s clearly carrying an injury of some sort. As the game wore on her kicking became more and more restrained, conversion duties (as sparse as they were) handed to Chey and debutante Elise Simpson, neither of whom had the range or accuracy.

This in turn meant the Raiders only had one option in attack – draw Parra defenders in towards the sticks and then send the ball wide to Bartlett on the left, who undefended scored twice (Tufuga bagged the only other try for the home side).

Defence, as like the two previous games, was appalling. Too often Eels players just strode through the line, Raiders hands grabbing at the air as the opposition passed them by. 7 different Eels players scored (Rory Owen got a double) while Pearson deftly slotted 7/8 conversions.

There were however some good signs for the Raiders.

Elise Simpson was integral in both of Bartlett’s tries, chiming in beautifully to get the ball out to the edge. She looked to dip in confidence when she butchered not one but two kick defusals (the first one would’ve been very difficult as the Steeden ironically vanished into the shadow of the north-west light tower). Thankfully she got back on her proverbial feet, scooped up the next kick that came her way and rolled up her sleeves. She demonstrated defensive courage far beyond her experience, cutting down breakaway Eels four times, either preventing certain tries outright or at least staving them off for a few more tackles.

Amelia Pasikala also impressed in her return from injury, putting in some good shots in defence and effecting a steal that managed to staunch an Eels set before they crossed into Raiders territory.

Their is a paradox of this season – as it continues to shorten it feels longer and longer, each loss distorting the rugby league spacetime continuum.

If the Raiders wish to achieve parity with their opponents they need to knuckle down on the basics. No-one has ever won a game with a paltry 53% completion rate – holding onto the footy is a critical skill. They also need to identify backup for the array of skills that seem to exclusively exist within ZT, because she clearly needs a rest before things get worse.

Patience and perseverance may be our only forward.

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