NEWS
RAIDERS KEEP SEASON ALIVE WITH STUNNING STORM UPSET
The Canberra Raiders sent Melbourne packing from the 2022 premiership race with a 28-20 upset at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Ricky Stuart’s team has now beaten Melbourne five times in a row at AAMI Park and they move on to play the Eels in another sudden-death clash next weekend.
After defending their line stoutly for several sets early on, the Raiders cracked the Storm when Joseph Tapine put Jack Wighton into the back field with a delicate offload.
Wighton pinned his ears back and then ofloaded a pass which was touched by Nick Meaney before landing in the hands of Xavier Savage who sent it on to Matt Timoko, the centre taking on Cameron Munster and powering over in the right corner for a 4-0 lead.
On the back of their third six-again call in the opening 15 minutes the Storm went left and Kenny Bromwich put in a grubber which Savage was forced to knock it dead to hand the home side a fresh set.
From there it was ball-players Munster and Jahrome Hughes creating space on the right for Marion Seve to put Xavier Coates away on a 20-metre run to the corner for his 14th try of the season.
Four minutes later it was Caotes doubling his tally on the back of brilliant lead-up work by Hughes, who spotted Jordan Rapana in off his wing and chipped over for his winger to touch down and the Storm led 8-4.
It took the Raiders just 10 minutes to hit back and reclaim the lead when halfback Jamal Fogarty took the first pass of a scrum 10 metres out and brushed off Meaney, Justin Olam and David Nofoaluma to score.
In the 35th minute Tapine capped a magnificent first half when he put Elliott Whitehead over from close range with another deft offload and the Green Machine was in overdrive at 16-8.
Munster and Hughes combined again in the 45th minute to put Seve away down the right side, the centre passing back to Munster who found Coates to power away for his second hat-trick of the season. Munster converted to make it 16-14.
A high tackle by Tapine on Hughes in the 50th minute handed Munster a penalty shot to equal the scores but he pushed it wide.
The Storm regained the lead in the 57th minute when a rampaging Nelson Asofa-Solomona took a pass from Grant 10 metres out and proved unstoppable to make it 20-16 with Munster's conversion.
With 15 minutes to play it was Wighton nudging a left foot kick into the in goal for Hudson Young to beat Munster to the ball and lock the scores up before Fogarty converted for 22-20 to Canberra.
The Raiders launched a raid down the left side with five minutes to play and Jordan Rapana made the most of a stroke of luck after a pass rebounded off Kris' head and into the in goal area. Fogarty's ice cool conversion made it 28-20 to the visitors and the upset was complete.
The Green Machine are riding a five-game winning streak and will go into their sudden-death clash against Parramatta on Friday full of confidence while the Storm are left to reflect on a season hampered by injuries to key players like Ryan Papenhuyzen, Christian Welch and Reimis Smith.
