Raiders' proof in the pounding hopes rise for dragons slayers
Wine Making
Canberra's win over St George Illawarra yesterday was all about proving things.
The Raiders, 31-12 victors over the NRL glamour club at Canberra Stadium, proved themselves as genuine finals contenders.
They proved they are no longer simply making up the numbers in the race to the play-offs.
And their win proved the old adage correct that a champion team always beats a team of champions.
The Dragons' side was equal to the best it had been all season, with Mark Gasnier a shock call-up to join Matt Cooper in the centres, Ben Hornby shifting to fullback and Jason Ryles joining Luke Bailey in the starting front row.
Between the 17 Dragons was 97 matches of representative experience, including the Australian centre pairing of Cooper and Gasnier and front-row duo Bailey and Ryles.
On the other side of the paddock, the Raiders combined had only racked up 43 representative matches, 32 of which belonged to five-eighth Jason Smith whose last representative fixture was six years ago.
For Raiders coach Matt Elliott, the win was obviously vital for the two precious competition points on offer.
But more important to Elliott was proof his side could produce a stirring performance as clear underdog against quality opposition in the run to the finals.
"They didn't save anything up, they came with their best team," the coach said of the merged venture's line-up.
"But when you get 17 people committed to what we had prepared to do, it certainly doesn't make it frustrating for me.
"We know what we're capable of and we knew we were capable of beating St George and now we'll move onto our next opposition."
That next opposition is South Sydney on Saturday night, a match where victory would elevate the Raiders into the top eight.
Yesterday's victory moved them to ninth position, only outside the all-important eight on a negative points differential.
Canberra Stadium resembled the Dragons' territory of Kogarah Oval yesterday, with opposition fans making the hike from Sydney and Wollongong in droves.
But that only served as inspiration to the home side, which capitalised on the added atmosphere that had been lacking at home matches during the season.
Canberra was its own worst enemy in the opening stages of the match, making unforgivable errors in its own half and twice failing to get a kick away on the fifth tackle when in the Dragons' danger zone.
The Raiders didn't play structurally brilliant football but strategically, they were at their best.
They gradually wore down their prey and almost annoyed the Dragons out of the match with consistent attack and strong scrambled defence.
Their forward pack led the way.
The Dragons led early but three unanswered converted tries and a field goal to the home side sucked the life out of the Dragons, who played the final seven minutes with 12 men after referee Paul Simpkins sent Ryles to the sin-bin for dissent.
St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown was full of praise for Canberra after the contest, rating Elliott as equal to the best coach in the NRL alongside Melbourne's Craig Bellamy and complimenting the Raiders for their persistence.
"They're like when you get bad relatives over and they don't go home. They don't go away Canberra, they just hang around," he said.
"You wait for them to leave and they keep staying and drinking all your good wine and beer. It doesn't matter what the score is, they're there and that's how they play."
Raiders captain Clinton Schifcofske praised his centres Adam Mogg and Phil Graham, claiming their defence set up the win.
Schifcofske, who kicked five conversions from as many attempts, approached the game thinking if his side could stop the lethal combination of Gasnier and Cooper from dominating, its chances of victory would increase. "They shut down their two fairly handy centres [Gasnier and Cooper] really well," he said. "Adam Mogg's done that for three or four weeks now and I don't think there's a better defensive centre in the comp at the moment."
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