Raiders outlast Eels

[RNA]

Raiders outlast Eels
25 June 2011, 9:20 pm

Canberra's youthful halves combination helped the home side overcome freezing conditions and a second-half comeback to beat Parramatta 25-12 in the nation's capital on Saturday night.

Half-back Sam Williams starred with the game's first and last tries and full-back Nathan Massey, standing in for injured number one Josh Dugan, scored one of his own in an impressive individual performance.

Williams credited a cohesive effort between himself and halves partner Josh McCrone for Canberra's success.

"It's probably one of those things that take a little bit to get used to but I think it's happening," he told Grandstand.

"We've played a few games together now and it's gelling.

"[That's] what we were looking for for a couple of weeks now and it's happened, we had to guts it out there but we managed to hang on at the end

"If you hold [the Eels] to 12 in most games you'll probably win and it was a great defensive effort, we're pretty proud of that."

After the video referee disallowed an early try in the corner to centre Joel Thompson, Williams opened the scoring as he stepped several times to score under the posts in the 20th minute.

Just five minutes later, McCrone ran 25 metres from a scrum to score a great individual try.

A penalty goal from Jarrod Croker in the 32nd minute extended the Raiders' lead and they went into the sheds with a comfortable 14-0 lead.

Parramatta was starved of possession and looking lethargic but improved after the break.

Hooker Matt Keating took advantage of some sleepy defence to score under the posts and breathe life into the match but Canberra's rookie full-back Massey responded when he scored after another great run by McCrone.

The Eels were able to narrow the gap to six points when Ben Smith crashed over in the 65th minute.

But McCrone's bizarre field goal - which ricocheted off Casey McGuire's shoulder before clearing the crossbar - helped the home side rest easy.

Both Canberra halves were equally pleased with the result of the drop-goal.

"After that one against the Bulldogs, I'll take anything," McCrone said.

"That'll do me."

Williams added: "We've had a couple a few weeks before and they haven't gone over, but that one's gone over. It doesn't matter how it goes over, we're just happy to get the two points."

Minutes later, Williams charged down a Jarryd Hayne kick and then beat Tim Mannah in a footrace to the loose ball, planting it beside the posts to put the result out of Parramatta's reach.

Parramatta skipper Nathan Hindmarsh, who turned in a game-high 53 tackles and a typically workmanlike 12 hit-ups for 98 metres, played down suggestions that the game was closer than the 13 points the scoreboard suggested.

"Thirteen's enough," he said.

"Very bad first half, the second half wasn't much better. A chargedown try and the try they got on the short side ... it's disappointing for us.

"The way we've been playing the last month, even though we haven't been winning games, we should have turned up with better attitudes.

"We knew it was going to be tough but we took them a bit easy I think."

The veteran second-rower said the Eels barely showed up after a solid Monday night showing against Manly at Brookvale that they only lost in the shadows of full-time.

"I think the hard thing is to maintain the high level of intensity and we just didn't tonight and it cost us the game in the end," he said.

"We looked good for the first two minutes when we got that early penalty, but after that we were never in the game.

"We improved in the second half but let in some soft tries and it cost us."

The win keeps Canberra second last ahead of Gold Coast, but the Green Machine moves within four points of the top eight.

The victory came at a cost, though, with prop David Shillington believed to have suffered a recurrence of a pectoral injury.

Shillington had been hoping to put in a good performance before the Queensland squad is named for the third Origin match.

Canberra: 25 (S Williams 2, N Massey, J McCrone tries; J Croker 3/4 conversions, J McCrone field goal)

Parramatta: 12 (M Keating, B Smith tries; L Burt 2/2 conversions)

- ABC/AAP

Source: Tag: Rugby League - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)