The Raiders defeated the Eels 25-12 at Canberra Stadium in Round 16 last year.
In a fast and furious encounter the Raiders sped to a 14-nil lead at halftime courtesy of tries to halves Sam Williams (19th minute) and Josh McCrone (24th minute).
A lapse by the Raiders’ marker defenders allowed Eels hooker Matt Keating to score a soft try from dummy-half just five minutes into the second half before the home side extended their lead when fullback Nathan Massey cashed in on a long-range movement to make it 18-6 with half an hour remaining.
The Eels were given a sniff when Ben Smith crossed on the right edge in the 65th minute before Josh McCrone booted one of the more unusual field-goals in rugby league history, kicking into the back of opponent Matt Keating and happily watching as the ball rebounded up and over the crossbar.
The night’s scoring was complete when Sam Williams charged down an attempted clearing kick from Jarryd Hayne on halfway, then soccer-booted the ball into the in-goal and won the chase.
The Raiders were tough to contain all evening – eight of their 17 players made more than 100 metres and all up the team tallied a whopping 1.6 kilometres of territory.
