The Raiders were ahead 18-0 before they gave their fans something to worry about as the Bulldogs fought back to get to 18-12 before a late Jarrod Croker penalty goal sealed the win.

It was strong defensive effort from the Raiders in the first half as the Bulldogs dominated possession but the Raiders kept turning them away.

The first time the Raiders made it into the Bulldogs half saw Joe Picker snatch a bomb from Ben Barba’s grasp, which the Raiders took advantage of to see Joel Thompson score to make it 4-0.

With errors helping Canterbury maintain the pressure the Raiders scored against the run of play when Andrew Ryan saw his pass get intercepted by Reece Robinson, who sprinted 40 metres to score just short of the half hour.

“We prepared well and we were ready for the challenge but unfortunately those options we took when we were attacking their line weren’t good enough,” Bulldogs skipper Andrew Ryan said.

Canberra coach David Furner was delighted with his side’s effort in defence but admitted there was plenty of work still to be done.

“The game was won on our defence and attitude, it was pleasing to watch,” Furner said.

The Raiders have a bye next weekend. Despite still being at the bottom of the ladder they are just four points behind the eighth placed Tigers.

The team is:
Josh Dugan, Brett Morris, Michael Jennings, Mark Gasnier, Akulia Uate, Jamie Soward, Mitchell Pearce, Jason King, Michael Ennis, Kade Snowden, Beau Scott, Greg Bird, Paul Gallen (c)

Reserves: Ben Creagh, Trent Merrin, Tim Mannah, Dean Young

Ricky Stewart said he picked Josh Dugan ahead of Jarryd Hayne as Dugan fits more into the style of play that he wants to coach. Stewart said he thinks Hayne would be best suited to five-eighth. The non-selection of Hayne was one of the surprises in the team announcement.

Matt Cooper most likely would have been selected in the NSW team however he made himself unavailable.

Stewart said the key to his selections was to pick players in their specialist positions. Seven players from St George are in the team.

The first State of Origin match will be played in Brisbane on May 25. Game two will be played on June 15 in Sydney, game three will again be in Brisbane on July 6.

The Queensland team will be announced on Tuesday.

Read more at NRL.com – Raiders v Storm match report

Benchmarc Kitchens & Joinery sponsor the Canberra Raiders. Visit their site to see some Kitchen Renovations Canberra

They now advance to the 2010 NRL grand final where they will meet the Sydney Roosters in the decider.

The Tigers scored first when Lote Tuqiri scored out wide in the 17th minute. St George hit back when Jeremy Smith scored in the 28th minute only to fall behind again just before half time as Robert Lui scored for the Tigers.

A Jason Nightingale try gave Jamie Soward the chance to level the scores, which he did with a 51st minute conversion.

It was then a matter of someone breaking the deadlock. Soward was the man as he slotted home the winning field goal in the 74th minute.

A crowd of 71,212 was on hand to witness the clash at ANZ stadium.

St George are in their second grand final since they merged with Illawarra in 1999, the first one coming in that year. St George played Eastern Suburbs in the 1975 grand final. I was in the crowd on that day and still remember the 38-0 victory for the Roosters.

Sydney Roosters player Sam Perrett scored a double against the Titans

The Sydney Roosters are just one win from completing an amazing turnaround. Just last season they claimed the wooden spoon. They were terrible. This year they will be playing for the 2010 title after a 32-6 win over the Gold Coast Titans.

The Roosters took an early lead when Sam Perrett scored in the 11th minute, only to see the Titans hit back in the 19th minute when William Zillman scored.

After some great ball movement Sam Perrett scored a double when he crossed on the right side of the field. The Todd Carney conversion made it 12-6 which was also the halftime score.

The match turned early in the second half. Desperate defence from Braith Anasta saw Zillman put the ball down on the corner post instead of the try line. Not long after that the Roosters were in after Daniel Conn scored when he collected the ball after it bounced. A split-second pause from the Gold Coast allowed Conn to break into the clear before he carried a defender over the line to plant the ball under the sticks.

The 51st minute conversion took the score out to 18-6 before the Roosters managed to seal the deal with a Braith Anasta try in the 63rd minute. Just to add to the celebrations that were taking place late in the game a try from Frank-Paul Nuuausala made it a great night for the Roosters and their fans.

For the Titans it was a disappointing end to the season and the end of a career for Matt Rogers as he played his last game in the NRL.

Todd Carney will have an anxious wait to see the outcome of the tackle on Scott Prince late in the first half. He was place on report after catching Prince high with a swinging arm. Prince was falling as Carney swung his arm and he made first contact with the upper chest.

The Roosters now have to wait and see who they will play in the 2010 NRL grand final as the Tigers meet the Dragons on Saturday night to see who will move on to face the Roosters.

Photo by CC through Flickr member paddynapper

Led brilliantly by Benji Marshall the Tigers came away from Canberra with a 26-24 victory. Canberra’s Jarod Croker had a chance to level the scores with four minutes remaining however he pushed his 30 yard penalty attempt to the right of the posts.

Marshall was in doubt in the lead up to the match however showed no signs of being slowed down by a knee injury as he played a big part in three of the Tigers four tries. Early in the match he sent Chris Heighington over for a try after he flicked the ball back inside. The Raiders players were expected it to go wide and held off Heighington.

The Raiders hit back when Bronson Harrison powered his way over the line.

From the kickoff a Shaun Fensom knock-on gave the Tigers the ball in good position. Again it was good setup play from Marshall that sent over Gareth Ellis untouched. The Raiders were completely fooled by Marshall.

Next came a try I could see about to happen from the grandstand. The Tigers had a two on one situation as the scrum packed. With the half going to that side it was a simple matter of getting Lote Tuqiri in the clear and he sprinted away for a try to see the score out to 18-6.

A try to Joel Monaghan before the break left the home side trailing 18-12.

More Raider mistakes proved costly in the second half. Josh Dugan allowed himself to be bundled over the sideline and points followed for the Tigers. They skipped out to a handy lead only to see the Raiders fight back to 226-24.

It then came down to that moment when after a high shot by a Tigers player saw a penalty awarded 30 metres out, Croker setup for the penalty goal attempt that would have make it 26 all. As the crowd let out a groan of dissapointment the ball went right of the posts.

The Raiders still had a chance however a late error saw the Tigers get the ball and they successfully ran down the clock.

The Tigers will next play St George with the winner earning a spot in the grand final.

Tomorrow night the Panthers play the Roosters with the winner to play the Gold Coast Titans next weekend.

The Raiders were first to score when Terry Campese crossed in the fifth minute.

The teams alternated scoring in the first half with Michael Gordon scoring a try for Penrith in the 9th minute, Dane Tilse for the Raiders in the 16th minute. Gordon scored his second try in the 22nd minute, then Bronson Harrison in the 34th minute.

All tries in the first half were converted to see the teams go into half-time break with the Raiders leading 18-12.

The Raiders broke the sequence in the second half as they scored next to have back-to-back tries either side of half-time. Reece Robinson crossed out wide to make the score 24-12 after the Croker conversion.

The Raiders had the first of what would be three disallowed tries not long after as Terry Campese crossed only to see the video ref call it back due to interference from a decoy runner.

If you saw this for yourself you would have been amazed. The Penrith player who was said to have been impeded actually stumbled and fell into the back of the Raider penalised and this took place well away from where Campese ran with the ball.

The Panthers were next to score when Sandor Earl flew high above the pack to catch the ball in the 60th minute. After endless video ref reviews the green light was given. There was some doubt about it being a double movement and if the ball was grounded over the line.

After the try was finally awarded Michael Gordon stepped up to take the conversion, it was looking good but struck the upright and bounced away. This was crucial, especially when you consider Croker hit the post and was successful with a conversion earlier in the match.

Two more Raiders tries were waved away after forward passes which both times were out on the right.

The match got real interesting when Sandor Earl scored his second try in the 67th minute from what was a sensational finish. He got the ball about 10 metres out and dive for the tryline. He was in the air and most of his body had gone over the sideline as he slammed the ball down. The conversion made the score 24-22.

The Raiders fought hard to keep their lead and in the end they had done enough to complete a sixth consecutive win.

In other NRL scores from Saturday night we saw an even more exciting match which saw the Roosters defeat the Tigers 19-15

Image by CC, taken by Flickr user paddynapper

The Tigers hammered the Roosters in the first half and Gareth Ellis was unlucky to have not scored on three occasions. Desperate Roosters defence denied the Tigers until the 28th minute when Lote Tuqiri crossed out wide to take the score to 4-2 after the Roosters had earlier opened the scoring with a penalty goal.

A Beau Ryan try just before halftime saw the teams go into the break at 10-2. Considering the amount of possession the Tigers had the Roosters had done well to keep it that close.

Early in the second half Blake Ayshford scored for the Tigers to make it 14-2, then in the 54th minute Robbie Farah kicked a field goal to make it 13 points to the good of the Tigers.

The Roosters were not giving up. It was that man Todd Carney who chipped ahead, regathered and then passed off to Braith Anasta who scored in the 60th minute.

With plenty of time on the clock the Roosters kept pushing. The Tigers had slowed down and did not look like scoring. To make matters worse the played the last few minutes with 12 men after injury saw Benji Marshall leave the field.

At the 75th minute the Roosters edged closer when Mitchell Pearce scored and the conversion got the Roosters to within one point.

Now one of the most amazing final sequences was about to emerge.

The Roosters had the ball in good field position and looked to be working the ball towards the posts for the field goal to take the match to golden point extra time.

The Tigers got a huge hit on a Roosters player and he lost the ball. It was debatable if it was a high shot but the refs said no.

A scrum followed and the Roosters won against the feed. Now the Roosters scrambled to get away a field goal as time expired. In the end it was Anasta who knocked it over from long range. 15-15 as time expired.

The Tigers could now send on a player to make it 13-a-side for extra time.

It was the Tigers who first had a chance to win the game however the Farah field goal was missed. More excitement followed and it looked like the Tigers would take the win.

A Sam Perrett error when he tried to mark the ball aussie rules style only saw him fumble over the sideline gave the Tigers the ball in good field position. Several plays later as they pushed for a try desperate Roosters defence forced the ball carrier over the sideline.

Another chance for the Roosters. They saw several field goals sail wide.

Now the clock was approaching 100 minutes of match time and it was Shaun Kenny-Dowall who was to become the hero. He snatched an intercept but still had work to do. He evaded tacklers on the right and then cut left and crossed for the game winning try in the left corner.

It now takes the record for the 3 versus 6 clash to 7-5 for the 6th placed team since the current playoff format was introduced.

It was a thrilling match, the most exciting in recent times in the NRL.

image through CC. Photo taken by Flickr user paddynapper

If Souths could beat the table topping St George Illawarra Dragons by five points they could have snuck into the top eight of the NRL.

In the end it was not to be for the Rabbitohs as they went down 38-24. They were never really in with a chance.

We now know the top eight which is St George, Panthers, Wests Tigers, Titans, Warriors, Roosters, Raider and Sea Eagles.

The finals kick-off next weekend with the Titans hosting the Warriors on Friday night. On Saturday at 6.30pm the Roosters and Tigers clash at Sydney Football Stadium. At 8.30pm on Saturday the Raiders travel to Penrith to play the Panthers. The first week of the finals is completed on Sunday when the Dragons play Manly at home starting at 4pm.

The Raiders scored early through bombs which saw winger Daniel Vidot and fullback Josh Dugan grab converted tries, four minutes apart.

The Broncos needed to win by 15 points to steal a finals spot and keep their impressive record intact for reaching the finals. They had been in the finals every year since 1991.

A try to Brisbane hooker Andrew McCullough gave the home fans some hope but the missed conversion from an easy position signaled that perhaps it was not to happen. McCullough sold the Raiders a big dummy to break through the defence and score.

The teams went into the halftime break with the Raiders holding a 12-4 advantage.

Vidot scored again in the 59th minute when he crossed over out wide. Jarod Croker then converted from the sideline to give the Raiders some breathing space.

A late surge from Brisbane saw tries to Jharal Yow Yeh and Matt Gillet and the gap was cut to two points with eight minutes left to play.

A movement from Brisbane looked likely to result in a try before Terry Campese knocked down a Scott Anderson offload to Sam Thaiday who was just metres from the Canberra try line.

In the end the Raiders did what they had to do and now await the results of the other matches to see who they play next weekend when finals football kicks off.

If the Roosters and Warrior suffer big losses it is possible that the Raiders could find themselves in fifth spot although as the Roosters play North Queensland that is not likely.

In the other Friday night match the Gold Coast Titans pulled off a nail-biting 21-18 win over the Tigers.