Raiders tug leash tight on Bulldogs21 May 2011, 7:33 amThe Raiders have notched up third win with a 20-12 victory over the Bulldogs in their round 11 NRL match at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.
The Raiders got out to an 18-0 lead on the back of a huge defensive effort and making the most of their limited opportunities in attack with three opportunist tries.
But Bulldogs showed some fight late to narrow the gap to only six with 10 minutes left, but three late handling errors thwarted any chance of a miracle comeback.
The Bulldogs dominated possession early, with Origin discard Jamal Idris putting on two big hits to force the ball loose in the first 10 minutes.
But the Raiders were up to the task defensively and then scored a brilliant team try with their first foray deep in their attacking half.
Joe Picker flew above Ben Barba to collect a Sam Williams bomb, offloaded to Josh McCrone who passed to Bronson Harrison, who offloaded to Shaun Fensom who in turn spread it wide to Joel Thompson who dummied and scored.
After being gifted two penalties, the Bulldogs blew their chance at a try when Josh Reynolds was held up over the line and the Raiders made them pay moments later when Reece Robinson intercepted a poor Andrew Ryan pass and ran 30 metres to score untouched.
Again the Bulldogs attack failed to fire despite good field position, which was a recurring theme in a first half where they had 60 per cent of possession but went into the sheds trailing 10-0.
The Raiders had another try against the run of play eight minutes into the half when Barba tapped a Williams 40/20 attempt back into the field of play, only for Robinson to beat him to the ball. From the next play Picker muscled his way over from close range.
After the Bulldogs had consecutive goes at the Raiders' line, they were let down by a forward pass and then conceded a penalty which Croker converted to give them an 18-0 lead with 22 minutes left.
The Bulldogs had their first try when Frank Pritchard set up Brett Morris to score with 15 minutes left.
They then had a real sniff when Pritchard flicked the ball to Greg Eastwood who offloaded to a flying Barba to score under the posts to narrow the gap to six with 10 left, but it wasn't enough.
Raiders 20 Tries: Thompson, Robinson, Picker Goals: Croker 4/5
Bulldogs 12 Tries: Morris, Barba Goals: Turner 2/2
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Source: 3News
Topic: Raiders tug leash tight on Bulldogs
