Raiders steal golden point victory

A Josh Hodgson try in golden point has seen Canberra steal a 28-24 golden point victory over the Canberra Raiders at a buzzing Pirtek Stadium.

The first half was a dour affair with both sides only managing one try each in the opening 40 minutes amidst some controversial calls. The Raiders opened the scoring through Brenko Lee who embarrassed the Eels defence when he strolled over from dummy half to score inside the first 3 minutes. Not long after Jarrod Croker looked to have his first of the afternoon but was rejected by the Video Referees who ruled that Croker had lost the ball in the grounding.

That decision would come back again to raise some questions with Semi Radradra being awarded a try despite all the replays suggestion that there wasn't clean grounding but on the precedence of the game already most were expecting red lights; But video refs Shayne Hayne & Daniel Irvine ruled they couldn't overturn the original decision from Gavin Badger and the try was awarded.

The second half was a see-sawing affair with both sides managing to take the lead on multiple occasions.

The opening try of the second half was to Semi Radradra who again got the seal of approval from the Video Referees despite replays again showing that Semi had in fact lost the ball.

Jarrod Croker then scored the next 12 points for the Raiders after a double within the space of 5 minutes both of which he converted and it took the Raiders lead outside a converted try.

The Eels then got the momentum with a try to Junior Paulo which was soon followed by the sin binning of Sisa Waqa.

That play meant that the Raiders were down to 12 inside 7 to go and it was Parra who scored again and looked like they had sealed the victory this time through Daniel Alvaro and after the conversion it was a six point game.

A controversial call a short kickoff for the Raiders got them the ball back and it was when the clock read 0:00 that the Raiders scored through Edrick Lee and it was a conversion from touch that would give the Raiders a golden point situation. Thankfully for the Raiders Jarrod Croker converted and we headed to golden point.

The Raiders struggled to make any decent field position in golden point but it wasn't until Ryan Morgan inexplicably knocked the ball out of the hands of teammate Semi Radradra that gave the Raiders field position. As everyone expected the field goal to come, English import Josh Hodgson knew that and ducked out from dummy half and scored the try for the Raiders to end their season with the win.

Match Details

Parramatta Eels 24 Canberra Raiders 28
Venue: Pirtek Stadium
Crowd: 0
Halftime Score: Parramatta Eels 6 Canberra Raiders 6

PARRAMATTA EELS (24)
Tries: Semi Radradra (2), Junior Paulo, Daniel Alvaro
Field Goals:
Conversions: Luke Kelly (3/4)
Penalty Goals: Luke Kelly (1/1)

CANBERRA RAIDERS (28)
Tries: Brenko Lee, Jarrod Croker (2), Edrick Lee, Josh Hodgson
Field Goals:
Conversions: Jarrod Croker (4/4)
Penalty Goals:

LeagueUnlimited.com Players of the Match:

3 points - Jarrod Croker
2 points - Josh Hodgson
1 point - Semi Radradra

LeagueUnlimited.com Live Commentary

1: Big start for Parra and they get six again and have gone 85m so far before a penalty ruled by Gavin Badger

3: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Brenko Lee. Kick to come.
Brenko Lee embarrasses some terrible defence from Parramatta and goes from dummy half and scores

4: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker puts the conversion over

9: Last tackle forward pass called by Gavin Badger and the Raiders get a handover on the 10m line

10: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Shaun Fensom makes an unforced error.
Canberra building great pressure 15m out but Shaun Fensom loses the ball

12: Strange sequence of plays but somehow Parra have forced a goalline dropout and replays suggest Badger got it right

15: Back to back penalties for the Raiders and they go on the attack again

19: Thoughts there that Sisa Waqa may have lost a bomb... but touch judge Anthony Elliott lets Badger know it was held on to

20: Junior Paulo goes for the line on the last but gets taken down right on the line and Canberra survive

23: Sam Williams goes high with the kick but Semi takes it easily over the rest of the players

26: Ryan Morgan takes a beauty of an air swing but not much happening in the greasy conditions at the moment

28: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Jarrod Croker makes an unforced error.
Raiders again struggle with the ball

30: Another set for the Eels on the Raiders line after a bomb is dropped

32: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Paul Vaughan makes an unforced error.
Paul Vaughan loses the ball with the goalline open for him... strange set from the Raiders

33: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Sisa Waqa makes an unforced error.
Sisa Waqa is struggling under the high ball today and he loses this one

35: Jordan Rapana knocks the high ball over the dead ball line and Parra will get another set

36: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Semi Radradra. Kick to come.
Semi Radradra gets the green lights despite the replays showing a lack of control from Semi

37: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Luke Kelly successful.
Luke Kelly converts the try and levels the score

42: The second half is underway and the game has gone from on end to the other on kicks... Parra's first ends with a 20m restart

44: Good kick from Norman out to Semi but fingertips from Jordan Rapana saves them and it goes into touch

47: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Semi Radradra. Kick to come.
Semi Radradra gets his 24th try of the season but yet again there was doubts on the grounding

48: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Luke Kelly unsuccessful.
Luke Kelly hits the posts and it bounces away to keep it unconverted

51: Parra now taking this game by the scruff of the neck but still plenty of time and knowing the way we are going it still could be Raiders dominating in 5 minutes

55: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jarrod Croker. Kick to come.
Jarrod Croker scores for the Raiders after the Eels defence doesn't muscle up or get back into line

55: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker slots the conversion and takes the lead in the top pointscorers for 2015

60: Reece Robinson waits for the ball to go dead off the kick... it doesn't and he manages to get out of the ground

61: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Jarrod Croker. Kick to come.
Jarrod Croker scores after a neatly positioned kick from Sam Williams in behind Will Hopoate

62: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
Jarrod Croker converts his own try and the Raiders lead by 8

66: Last tackle and Reece Robinson chooses to go down the blindside from dummy half and gets pushed into touch

69: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Junior Paulo. Kick to come.
TOO BIG TOO STRONG - Junior Paulo has too much strength and scores

70: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Luke Kelly successful.
Luke Kelly slots the conversion from next to the posts and its down to 2 points

71: Poor kick from Luke Kelly on the last and it goes well over the sideline on the full

73: SIN BIN
Sisa Waqa is sent to the sin bin.
Sisa Waqa has been sent to the sin bin after playing at the ball from marker when not square, Badger has giving him the 10

75: TRY PARRAMATTA EELS
Scored by Daniel Alvaro. Kick to come.
Daniel Alvaro scores for the Eels and takes them to the lead

75: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION PARRAMATTA EELS
Conversion attempt by Luke Kelly successful.
Luke Kelly converts the try and the lead goes out to 4

77: UNFORCED ERROR CANBERRA RAIDERS
Paul Vaughan makes an unforced error.
Paul Vaughan loses the ball inside the Eels 10m zone

78: SUCCESSFUL PENALTY GOAL PARRAMATTA EELS
Penalty goal attempt by Luke Kelly successful.
Luke Kelly kicks the penalty goal and it takes the score to 6

79: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Edrick Lee. Kick to come.
EDRICK LEE SCORES - Great play and the game is still alive

80: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANBERRA RAIDERS
Conversion attempt by Jarrod Croker successful.
CROKER KICKS IT AND ITS GOLDEN POINT

80: Not a big territory gain set for the Raiders... the Eels start the set 38m from their own line

82: No kick on that play from the Eels and the Raiders have the ball on their own 20m

84: TRY CANBERRA RAIDERS
Scored by Josh Hodgson. Kick to come.
Josh Hodgson shows a dummy and Parramatta open a massive gap and Josh Hodgson goes from dummy half and scores a try