Daniel Vidot heads to the try line in a trail against the Sharks early this year ( photo : ourfooty media)
SG BALL CUP
	70 - 22
HAROLD MATTHEW'S CUP
	10 - 16
| MATTHEWS CUP RESULTS | SG BALL RESULTS |

The victory continues the Raiders strong season, but despite the score line, coach David Hamilton believes his team still has plenty of room for improvement.

“The end result was good obviously, 70 points, you can’t complain about that, but the first half our attitude wasn’t there,” Hamilton said.

“We just turned up, scored a try in the very first set and they sort of thought it was going to be a bit of a walk in the park from there.

But Saints, to their credit, put some back to back sets together and put some points on us.”

Daniel Vidot got the Raiders off to the best possible start with the first of his four tries coming in just the first set of the match.

After just two minutes however, the Raiders looked lethargic and lacked urgency, allowing the Dragons to hit back through Steve Riley.

The Dragons took the lead when Joseph Leilua rose above the Raiders defence to take a cross field bomb, and after eleven minutes St George was ahead 10 - 4.

The Raiders realised they had a real battle on their hands and they scored back to back tries through Sam Williams and Vidot to give Canberra a 14 - 10 lead.

The Dragons were rattled, and when they finally got the ball back they coughed it up and Drury Low was on hand to score his first of the afternoon. Brendan Harper converted from the sideline to give the Raiders a handy 20-10 lead approaching half time.

The Raiders lost the ball on the first tackle after the restart allowing the Dragons just enough time to score another try through their hooker Kyle Mallyon and Cameron King converted to make it 20-16 at the break.

The Raiders came out much more focussed in the second half and ran riot, posting 50 points for the half.

Mark Nicholls crashed over shortly after the restart, Cameron Breust converting for a 26-16 lead and when Drury Low went over for his second Canberra had opened up a 14 point lead in the blink of an eye.

Raiders’ hooker Matt McIlwrick scooted from dummy half, beating five defenders on his way to the line and when Sam Sauiluma scored untouched the Raiders lead 42-16.

Low completed his hat trick and Breust converted from the sideline to make it 48-18 with eighteen minutes remaining.

Again the Raiders went off the boil slightly with some simple errors creeping in to their game. St George took advantage to score and make it 48-22 with eleven minutes to go.

However, the Raiders refocussed to score four tries in the final ten minutes. Sauiluma and McIlwrick both scored their second, and Daniel Vidot scored again to make it 64-22 when the siren sounded.

The scoring wasn’t over though, with Vidot saving the best til last. The Dragons received a penalty after full time, and put a kick through in a last ditch effort post points.

Vidot had other ideas though and took the ball on his own ten metre line before launching a huge kick down field. Vidot won the race to the ball, picked it up at full speed and dived over under the posts to complete the 70-22 victory.

Raiders captain Mark Nicholls was happy with his side’s performance, especially in the second half and was pleased they put the Dragons to the sword.

“Yeah it was good to get a big win, we need it judging by the ladder, our for and against isn’t that flash, so it was good to get away in the second half,” Nicholls said. “I think we finished off well, their body language wasn’t real good after a couple of tries and it was nice to finally put a big score on someone.”

The only concern coming out of the game for the Raiders is McIlwrick and front rower Karl Salivano both being placed on report for a 34th minute dangerous throw.

The Raiders will be hoping to continue their stellar form when they take on the Illawarra Steelers at WIN Stadium next Friday night.

The Canberra Raiders Harold Matthews Cup side has been defeated 16-10 by the St George Dragons in a hard fought match at Seiffert Oval on Saturday.

The Raiders showed a great deal of improvement on their last outing and only an obstruction penalty 10 seconds from full time prevented the Raiders taking something out of the match.

Raiders’ coach John Taylor said injuries hampered his side late in the game, but it was a lack of ball control that really hurt the team’s chances.

“We still failed to control the ball and because of injury we had to make a couple of changes late in the game and some of those were in key positions so we just got a bit confused at the end,” Taylor said after the match. “We’re happy with the defence, but we need to control the ball and we got caned in the penalties which doesn’t help either.”

The game got off to a scrappy start with the Dragons knocking on from the kickoff giving the Raiders a golden opportunity to get on the board early, but a knock on from the ensuing scrum put paid to that.

The Raiders poor handling gave the Dragons plenty of chances early in the match, and ten minutes in, the Dragons finally took one. A simple missed tackle on the Raiders left edge allowed Nathan Green to burst through the line and run thirty metres before popping a ball back inside for Craig Smith to score. Smith failed to convert his own try, but the Dragons were up 4-0.

The Dragons were over again in the 16th minute through winger Nathan Green. A lucky bounce allowed the Dragons to race up field, and Green went over out wide. Smith converted, and the Dragons were ahead 10-0.

Another St George error straight from the kickoff handed Canberra a golden opportunity to get back into the match, which they duly took.

Raiders lock Mahe Fohua picked the ball up from the scrum and stormed through the Dragons defence to score under the posts and make it 10-6 at half time.

The second half was very hard fought, with some good scrambling defence from both sides denying their opposition.

Eventually though, the Dragons did manage to cross the line when hooker Nathan Dunn dived over from dummy half. Smith converted and the Dragons had a ten point buffer with just 15 minutes remaining.

The Raiders hit back shortly after, when a terrible kick turned to gold. The midfield bomb went backwards, but a series of good offloads gave Joe Bradley the opportunity to race away and score in the corner to make it 16-10 with eight minutes remaining.

The Raiders had one last chance to snatch a draw, but the obstruction allowed the Dragons to hang on for the victory.

In further bad news for the already depleted Raiders, second rower Nathan Close was stretchered from the field with a suspected broken ankle.

Raiders captain Luke Berkrey returned for the Raiders after five weeks on the sideline with a leg injury and lead by example, playing the full sixty minutes. Berkrey said he was happy with the effort his team put in but they just couldn’t get it done in the end.

“We didn’t go too bad, we just got done in the end,” a disappointed Berkrey said after the match. “We focussed on tackling a lot at training and we lifted a bit but just not enough in the end I guess.”

Last week’s stand in captain Dale Cooper-Shields was badly injured in the Raiders last game against Penrith after he hyper extended his elbow, but he was ruled fit only one day before the game and went on to play a full sixty minutes as well.

He was glad to be able to play, but said the team’s ill discipline contributed to the loss.

“Luckily my elbow pulled up well and I got the all clear to play,” Cooper-Shields said. “We went alright, but we got tired and just gave too many penalties away, and that killed us.”

The Raiders travel to WIN Stadium on Friday to take on the Illawarra Steelers in what is shaping as a must win game if they hold any hope of figuring in the finals this season.

St George Dragons 16 (Nathan Green, Nathan Dunn, Craig Smith tries; Craig Smith 2 goals) defeated Canberra Raiders 10 (Mahe Fohua, Joe Bradley tries; Dale Cooper-Shields goal) at Seiffert Oval.