The Canberra Raiders poor season continued with a 44-16 loss to the Sydney Roosters at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday 29 May.
Canberra got off to a fast start with Josh Hodgson and Corey Horsburgh scoring the first two tries to open up a 10-0 lead.
The Roosters hit back swiftly with three tries in six minutes to take a 16-10 lead into half time.
The Raiders had let slip yet another lead and it was almost inevitable what was to come after the break.
A lack of resilience has become a common theme for the Raiders this season and once the Roosters got on top, Canberra simply had no answers.
The Roosters piled on five tries to one in the second half to seal a dominant 28-point victory over the struggling Raiders.
After a dreadful eight-week period which has featured just one victory, the Raiders now find themselves 14th on the ladder.
There was plenty of drama surrounding the Raiders and George Williams this week and Ricky Stuart admitted it had been a “tough week” but said it had nothing to do with his side’s poor performance.
“It was a tough week, I’m not going to sit here and lie to you,” Stuart said.
“But I think we showed you when we got to the game that there was a lot of energy and good play, we had a good control of the game for 30 minutes and then it falls away.
“If we didn’t start that way, I’d say it really affected us, but it hasn’t. It didn’t affect us because the boys got here, they were upbeat.”
Stuart said his side aren’t showing the type of toughness that had them as premiership contenders over the past two seasons.
“We can’t keep getting to good leads and then passages of play go against us and it breaks our back. It used to be the complete opposite, it was only just yesterday,” he said.
“The last couple of years we’ve been so resilient and so tough and yet it just seems to be sucked out of us at the moment.”
The Raiders have a much-needed bye in Round 13 before taking on the Brisbane Broncos at GIO Stadium on Saturday 12 June
