An in-form Raiders outfit have continued their perfect start to the season and wrecked Benji Marshall’s first game as coach with a big win over the Tigers at GIO Stadium.
Marshall’s first outing as an NRL head coach didn’t go to plan as the Raiders took charge of Saturday’s match early and ran away with a 32-12 triumph to go 2-0 for the season.
A flashy first-half display where Canberra’s new-look left edge of Sebastian Kris and Xavier Savage ran amok helped the Raiders back up their round-one upset of Newcastle, defying any pre-season thought of a tumble down the ladder.
But the change of head coach only brought more of the same for back-to-back wooden-spooners Wests Tigers, who found themselves in a 14-point hole after an awful opening quarter-hour.
They made two poor errors, gave away three penalties and two set restarts, only had two attacking sets and conceded a pair of soft tries to put themselves down 14-0.
They did fire a rare shot as things looked to be spiralling, debutant five-eighth Lachlan Galvin creating for Samuela Fainu before skipper Api Koroisau danced his way over the line for 14-12.
But it was the last time the visitors would be close to the Raiders, who scored the game’s three remaining tries behind a near 90 per cent completion rate.
Kris and Savage combined at will to take the sword to the Tigers as the Raiders took over early.
Twice Kris’s physicality was able to get his winger through the line, speedster Savage first finding Danny Levi for a try before grabbing his own on the stroke of half-time.
Teen five-eighth Ethan Strange also took a turn carving up the Tigers’ right side, bouncing off defenders to score his first NRL try.
Kris failed an HIA early in the second term, forcing second-rower Zac Hosking to deputise in the Raiders centres.
It seemed to work for the former Penrith man, as he leapt high to ground halfback Jamal Fogarty’s bomb and ice the contest at 31-12.
Hosking continued to win over Raiders fans in his second appearance since joining, punching out 94m and making 32 tackles in a gutsy stint.
The Tigers did dig in after their shocking start, and would be encouraged by the first-up display of Galvin as he looked composed with ball-in-hand and ready for the physicality of NRL football.
Marshall hooked halfback Jayden Sullivan on 55 minutes for former Raider Aidan Sezer, although Sezer conceded two penalties and made an error in his shorter spell on the field.
Emotions threatened to boil over in a fiery second term and Tigers back-rower John Bateman was always in the thick of it, the former Raider getting multiple warnings from referee Peter Gough including for poor language.
By Alex Mitchell in Canberra
