Magic, mayhem and a touch of madness, too. And that was just in Ricky Stuart’s coach’s box.
Defence went out the window as the Raiders and Bulldogs traded tries and chaos reigned to kick off Magic Round. A penalty try against Ata Mariota for tackling Hayze Perham without the ball, with three minutes left, gave Canterbury a sniff.
Canberra held on, but the Suncorp Stadium turf, in ominous shape with another seven games to play in the next 48 hours, worked harder than anyone without the ball on Friday night, 11 tries in total making for a thrilling 34-30 Raiders win that had everything.
Referee Chris Sutton took centre stage with a couple of contentious calls, including a forward pass against Jack Wighton and a runaway intercept try also denied despite appearing to hit the star No.6 in the head.
The grit and gumption Canterbury were so proud of last week was gone in less than 60 seconds, Canberra’s Jordan Rapana scoring from the very first set of the match.
And Matt Timoko needed even less time to leave Burton clutching at nothing. The incumbent Blues Origin centre was left for dead from a routine scrum play, one of six Canberra tries in an enthralling win that never felt secure until the final whistle.
Hudson Young is thrilled by his try in the first half.Credit: Getty
The Raiders shoot into the top eight, for the moment at least, for the first time this season thanks to their fourth win on the trot. Broadcaster, and Stuart’s former Wallabies coach, Alan Jones was sitting shotgun all the while for Sticky’s wild ride.
It was exactly that, with cameras repeatedly panning to Stuart, understandably, throwing his hands in the air, trying and failing to keep a lid on things as the contest went haywire.
“It’s happened three weeks in a row, I’m becoming quite experienced at it, I don’t want to be,” Stuart said.
“Your life changes in 80 minutes … We’re learning while we’re winning. Over many years here, we’d get out to leads and get run down.”
Burton’s towering bombs had Canberra’s back three all at sea. Jacob Kiraz collected a brutal bomb on the bounce and Jake Averillo touched down to start a late charge at 32-24.
Matthew Timoko runs the ball.Credit: Getty
If Stuart had cause for high blood-pressure, Cameron Ciraldo’s would’ve been boiling as the Bulldogs matched moments of brilliance with blunders aplenty.
“I thought the scoreboard flattered us,” Ciraldo said, taking aim at “too many soft options, too many guys taking shortcuts”.
“The fact that we had a chance to win it at the end there, we didn’t deserve that … to come out and start that game the way we did, it was terrible.”
Three Canberra tries in six minutes during the first half gave the Raiders a healthy 22-6 lead in just 22 minutes.
Timoko’s try, when Burton or Paul Alamoti barely laid a hand on him, was sandwiched between four-pointers to Xavier Savage and Hudson Young.
The magic was all one way, until just as suddenly, it was reversed. A double for Jacob Preston was followed by another for Averillo. It stood at 22-18 at half-time. And then the magic and madness went up a notch.
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