By George Clarke
Canberra have underlined their NRL premiership credentials by becoming the first team to defeat the Warriors in New Zealand this season with a gritty 16-10 win.
In a spiteful game played at a rain-soaked GoMedia Stadium, the Raiders (9-3) leapfrogged the Warriors into second spot on the NRL ladder after surviving a late onslaught from the Kiwi side.
The Raiders had two players – Corey Horsburgh and Tom Starling – sent to the sin bin on Sunday but stood tall in Auckland to add the Warriors to their list of 2025 scalps, which also includes Melbourne and Cronulla.
Starling could face the wrath of the match review committee for his 77th-minute high shot on Chanel Harris-Tavita, while Raiders captain Joe Tapine was placed on report twice.
The Warriors drew first blood in the 15th minute when Tapine was penalised for a crusher tackle on Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, with Luke Metcalf kicking a penalty goal.
Tapine’s ill-discipline was a theme of a first-half Raiders performance where Ricky Stuart’s men gave away five penalties and five set restarts.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak gets airborne. Credit: Getty Images
After Warriors winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck had powered over Xavier Savage for the game’s first try in the 23rd minute, referee Adam Gee lost patience and sent Horsburgh to the sin bin.
The Raiders were on the ropes as the Warriors looked to exploit a 12-man defence, but Canberra were given an avenue back into the game when Harris-Tavita fumbled the ball.
On the next set the Raiders flung the ball to the left, where Seb Kris sent Starling over the whitewash after an inside pass.
Then, with 45 seconds left before halftime, Warriors centre Adam Pompey was penalised for being offside at a goal-line drop-out, which allowed Jamal Fogarty an easy penalty that tied the game up at 8-8 at the break.
Metcalf and Fogarty traded penalties in the early part of the second half, the latter’s coming when Nicoll-Klokstad was sin-binned for repeated ruck infringements with 20 minutes left.
Tuivasa-Sheck shifted to fullback, but he was unable to halt Fogarty as the halfback backed up an Ata Mariota break and put the Raiders a converted score ahead with a quarter of an hour left.
Fogarty’s try proved the match-winner, with the Green Machine surviving sustained Warriors pressure, compounded by having to play the final three minutes without Starling.
English import Morgan Smithies ensured the Raiders went home with the two points when he held out Warriors forward Marata Niukore in the dying stages.
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