The Raiders have celebrated Jack Wighton’s 200th NRL game with an epic 24-19 win over the Sharks thanks to a late Hudson Young try, but it could prove costly with veteran Josh Hodgson forced off early with a knee injury.
It looked for all money like Canberra had brought back the Faders tag when they coughed up an 18-6 lead to trail 19-18 with less than five minutes to go after Matt Moylan kicked his first field goal since 2016.
It brought back memories of last year’s constant heartbreaks when they blew seven double-digit leads to eventually miss the finals.
But perhaps the Green Machine has turned a new leaf this season because they lifted in the face of adversity to snatch back the lead at the death when Young fought through some flimsy defence to send Ricky Stuart into raptures.
There was one last scare when Matt Ikuvalu got over the line with a couple of seconds on the clock, but some desperate defence and a lack of evidence for the Bunker kept him from scoring.
WIGHTON STARS IN 200TH GAME
Jack Wighton has come out to open the season, showing shades of his 2020 Dally M campaign.
The veteran half opened the scoring and recorded a dominant 101 run metres, two tackle busts, a linebreak assist, an offload and 15 tackles to lead his side to victory.
“Well first half has always been about Jack, scored the first try 200th game, and he has been outstanding in the first half,” Fox League expert Cooper Cronk said.
“That man right there has been astronomical, he has been big and strong.”
“He stood out by a mile,” Benji Marshall said.
“His energy... and you talked about it in the pre-game about his physicality, getting into the contest and how aggressive he was with his defence. He just led the way with little parts of his game.
The Raiders were desperate for a big game from their marquee man after losing star recruit Jamal Fogarty only weeks from Round 1.
Fogarty was brought in to allow Wighton to run riot, but he did just that without the former Titans playmaker.
The 2020 Dally M Medallist struggled in 2021 along with the rest of the club in the nation’s capital.
The Raiders slumped to 10TH place last season, a far cry from their 2019 grand final campaign.
Wighton is instrumental in the Raiders success as a club and a return to his best form could see the club find themselves in the top eight.
If Wighton continues his form, the side will happily welcome Jamal Fogarty on the front foot who is expected to return around Round 15.
SHARKS NEW-LOOK HALVES STRUGGLE
The Sharks new-look halves pairing of Nicho Hynes and Matt Moylan showed flashes but ultimately struggled to organise the Cronulla side in attack.
Throughout the game the Sharks fifth tackle options fell flat leading to promising field position being squandered.
“Craig Fitzgibbon and the Cronulla Sharks need a little bit more from Matt Moylan, particularly when the opposition defensive side loses a few numbers, that’s when he needs to control the ball and demand the ball,” Cooper Cronk said on Fox League.
“That is one of their challenges to Moylan’s game if he is going to be a consistent five-eighth for the Sharks.
“It’s when Nicho Hynes goes down on fifth tackle Moylan needs to dominate, the last couple of times in this game he has decided to pass and hasn’t been the right option.”
While they struggled to gel early, both halves recorded try assists to mount a comeback and level the scoring late in the second half.
But once again their fifth tackle options hampered the Sharks in attack, completing only 20 of their 33 sets and recording only a single set restart.
“That is the third time in this second half Nicho Hynes has been tackled on the last tackle, Moylan has had two poor kicks,” Cronk said.
“So if I am Craig Fitzgibbon sitting at home watching Fox League I am definitely going to work on their kicking game, their options on the fifth tackle once their conductor Hynes goes down.”
HODGSON’S HUGE BLOW
Veteran hooker Josh Hodgson went down in the opening minutes of the game with a suspected knee injury.
Although medical staff cleared him of an ACL injury, he was unable to return to the field of play with a suspected MCL.
The Englishman has had serious knee issues in the past and things didn’t look good when two trainers were needed to take him off, but the signs were more encouraging when he was able to return to lend some support on the bench later in the half.
This is Hodgson’s last season in Canberra before he joins the Eels in 2023 and the Raiders really need him on the park because they are already without new halfback Jamal Fogarty who is out for four months with a knee injury.
Canberra does have Tom Starling and he was mightily impressive through the middle, with his speed causing all sorts of problems for the tiring Cronulla forwards.
The 23-year-old dummy-half has played second-fiddle to Hodgson for an extended period but showed his class on Friday night with a deft try assist for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.
Starling put in a pinpoint grubber kick after a darting run from dummy-half to allow his fullback to score and was instrumental throughout his 73 minutes on the field.
Source: foxsports.com.au