Impressive Canberra Raiders hunt down Wests Tigers WESTS Tigers' early season woes continued as Canberra inflicted a third loss in four games upon the pre-season NRL premiership favourite. 
The Raiders chalked up a comfortable 30-16 victory at Campbelltown Sports Stadium, their first win in eight against the joint venture, thanks to two tries from Jarrod Croker and four-pointers from Josh McCrone, Jarrod Croker, Sam Mataora and skipper Terry Campese.
Campese was impressive throughout for his side, which was missing fullback Josh Dugan and influential backrower Shaun Fensom, and easily won the battle of the five-eighths with Benji Marshall.
Marshall was unable to assert any significant influence over the game as the Tigers desperately missed the presence of skipper Robbie Farah around the ruck.
Tigers coach Tim Sheens shifted Tim Moltzen to fullback and drafted young Jacob Miller into halfback in an attempt to kickstart his misfiring attack. However, it was the visitors who started the brighter with McCrone latching onto a sweet pass from Campese with just five minutes on the clock.
The Tigers hit back when Gareth Ellis charged over from close range six minutes later, and Miller gave the home side the lead when he latched onto a loose ball, which he appeared to have knocked forward.
Croker hit back for Canberra when he raced 75 metres just before half-time after Campese hauled in a Benji Marshall grubber-kick just in front of his own line and offloaded to the centre, who outpaced Moltzen to touch down.
The Raiders came racing out of the traps after the interval and their dominance was rewarded when Mataora brushed aside three players to score six minutes after the restart.
Campese sealed the win with Canberra's fourth try 13 minutes from full-time and Croker added his second shortly after to add some gloss to the scoreline before Moltzen added a late consolation for the hosts.
Source: The Australian
Topic: Impressive Canberra Raiders hunt down Wests Tigers
