Raiders fall away in second half StormAs painfully clichéd as the saying is, it was most definitely a tale of two halves for the Canberra Raiders Toyota Cup side in yesterday’s 32-10 defeat at the hands of the Melbourne Storm at Canberra Stadium.
The Storm are placed third in the competition whilst the Raiders are tentatively placed outside the top eight, sitting in ninth position.
Despite their places in the competition the first half was a grippingly tight spectacle with resolute defence and composed attack a feature of the Raiders’ play in what was a consummate team performance by Canberra.
Halves Mitchell Cornish and Jack Wighton combined well from the outset, linking with each other frequently through well timed long passes.
This came to fruition in the 6th minute when the two combined to give centre Sami Sauiluma the opportunity to weave his way through the Melbourne defence and pop a ball for Chris Medcalf to score out wide. Medcalf failed to convert from out wide.
After such an tremendous opening display for the first 38 minutes of the match, the Raiders were painfully unlucky to concede a try to Melbourne centre Mahe Fonua off a cross field kick by Hugh McGahan’s son, Matt.
McGahan was unable to convert from the sideline entailing the scores were locked up at four all at half time.
Skipper Matt McIlwrick was a constant menace for the Storm’s defence with his sniping runs and provided plenty of starch and communication in defence for Canberra in the first half.
He unfortunately injured his meniscus late in the first half and was sorely missed for the remainder of the encounter. Scans during the week will reveal how long the Junior Kiwi representative will be out for.
Melbourne played with far more composure in the second half, completing their sets and enjoyed 65% of possession which resulted in five tries to the Victorian side. At one stage they had an astonishing five back to back sets.
The Raiders were a stark contrast. Due to the amount of tackling completed by the home side, fatigue set in and errors filtered through the side’s play which was highlighted by Canberra completing just 64% of their sets compared to Melbourne’s 85% in the second half.
Both sides had completed at an outstanding 90% in the first half.
“They had enough football to win five games of footy and we were dumb in the end,” Coach David Hamilton said.
“They just grinded away and completed their sets. Any team with that much possession should win, there’s no way in the world you can lose a game with that much ball. At the tail end of games it’s always going to get you. It doesn’t matter who you play if you give a team that much possession you’re never going to win.”
Winger Medcalf, who filled in admirably for McIlrwick at hooker, agreed with Hamilton yet remained positive for next Monday’s fixture against the St George Illawarra .
“Everything was going to plan in the first half but in the end it just hurt us doing too much defence and Melbourne ran away with it in the second half which was disappointing.”
“Everyone’s saying that they’re the top team to beat but we showed in the first half that we can stick it with them so we’ve got to keep our heads up and stay positive for next week.”
Source: raiders.com.au
Topic: Raiders fall away in second half Storm
