It was a massacre in the nation’s capital in Round 21 last year as the Knights put the Raiders to the sword, running away 36-6 victors after having the better of a somewhat dour 12-0 first half.
Kevin Naiqama got the scoring underway in the sixth minute off a great Alex McKinnon cutout, with Tyrone Roberts nailing the sideline conversion.
That was almost it for the first-half scoring, with the sides trading errors and penalties. Until, with three minutes to go, Roberts received the ball on his own 30-metre line, sliced the Raiders open and dashed 70 metres to score in the corner. He again slotted the sideline kick to give the Knights a handy 12-point buffer at the break.
Things got ugly for the Raiders shortly after the resumption, however, as McKinnon and Naiqama staged a virtual action replay of the opening try, with another cutout putting the winger over for a double in the corner, although this time the kick went wide.
Canberra’s edge defence continued to get a working over as Darius Boyd helped make it 22-0 shortly thereafter. The fullback was on hand to pick up a miraculous Akuila Uate offload and continue the Raiders’ miserable afternoon.
The Green Machine then gifted the home side a penalty two-pointer before Uate got himself on the scorer’s list at the midpoint of the second stanza. It started when Dane Gagai pinched the ball from Sandor Earl in a one-on-one tackle before the Knights spread it wide to find Uate unmarked.
The Raiders managed to haul one back when Blake Ferguson was on hand to clean up a cross-field kick fumbled by Boyd, but the visitors put the exclamation point on a great afternoon when bench prop Robbie Rochow crashed through from close range.
The Knights’ win was built on a massive 59-41 per cent possession dominance – as well as 59 more runs for almost 700 more metres of territory.
