There was to be no fairytale late surge into the eight for the Wests Tigers as Canberra ensured Sunday’s match at Leichhardt Oval went to form with a 42-point thumping.
Needing a victory to secure a place in this year’s finals, the Tigers were simply blown out of the water by a rampant Raiders side, for whom Josh Papalii and Jordan Rapana both scored doubles in a comfortable 52-10 victory.
When Joseph Tapine stripped the ball, picked it up himself and muscled his way over with six minutes left on the clock, the Raiders passed the required 42 points to ensure they ended the regular season with a club record points haul.
There was still time for Sam Williams to pounce on a grubber from Sia Soliola as the Raiders brought up 688 points for the season, beating the previous mark of 677 set by the premiership-winning side of 1994.
Victory saw Canberra claim second spot on the NRL ladder and they will now meet Cronulla in the first week of finals, while the manner of their convincing win – and the brilliance of Josh Hodgson, particularly in the first half – suggests they are serious contenders to land the premiership crown.
The tone for the Tigers’ day was set early, when Tim Simona overcooked his opening kick-off and the ball sailed out on the full; from that point onwards Jason Taylor’s side were never able to get a foothold in the game.
Jarrod Croker opened the scoring for the Raiders on 10 minutes before Rapana grabbed his first – running onto a flicked pass-of-the-season contender from Joey Leilua – and Papalii notched a first-half double either side of a Hodgson effort.
Holding a 30-4 lead at the break, the writing was already on the wall but there was no respite for the Tigers in the second half as Canberra piled on the misery, Leilua getting his name on the scoresheet before Rapana scored his second.
The late tries from Tapine and Williams sealed victory and ensured the Raiders finished in the top two for the first time since 1995, but one blot on an otherwise impeccable copybook came when Jack Wighton was put on report with 10 minutes remaining for a shoulder charge on Joel Edwards.
For the Tigers, it was a disappointing end to the season after they had, against the odds, kept alive their hopes of reaching the finals until the very last day of the regular season.
It was also a sad day for Robbie Farah fans, as the departing Tigers great, who won the premiership with the club in 2005, bid farewell to Leichhardt during an emotional half-time walk around the club’s spiritual home.
In Sunday’s late kick-off, Penrith sent an ominous warning to week-one finals opponents Canterbury with a first-half demolition of Manly in the final game of the regular season.
Panthers skipper Matt Moylan whipped their season-high 15,411 crowd at Pepper Stadium into a frenzy by having a hand in four of the tries in the 36-6 rout. Winger Josh Mansour nabbed a double, while rookie Nathan Cleary kicked a perfect six from six.
The Panthers’ win, their fifth in succession and seventh in eight games, sets up an intriguing elimination final against at out-of-form Bulldogs outfit at ANZ Stadium next Sunday. For the Sea Eagles, their fifth straight loss leaves them with a 13th-placed finish and plenty of thinking to do for first-year coach Trent Barrett. Working out the futures of injured veterans Brett Stewart and Steve Matai will be top of the pile.
Moylan was unstoppable from the kick-off, setting up Mansour’s first in the fourth minute before igniting a six-minute avalanche of points by putting Bryce Cartwright over the line in the 21st. The home side then went 100 metres in the next set, Moylan sending Waqa Blake into the clear for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to finish off, and then also getting Peter Wallace under the posts three minutes later.
At one stage, only some friendly fire from a prone Trent Merrin could stop the incumbent NSW Origin pivot, who finished the game with three try and four line break assists.
By the time rookie Nathan Cleary converted another Mansour try on the stroke of half-time, the Panthers left the field to a standing ovation and a 30-0 lead. Blake added a sixth try just minutes into the restart before the home side slowed down, with Wallace awarded his first rest of the season and Jake Trbojevic levelling the second half at six-all.
Parramatta ended their season from hell in style, thumping the New Zealand Warriors 40-18. A hat-trick to rookie fullback Bevan French showed Eels fans they have reason to hope going into the 2017 season as their side played with heart, pace and skill on a wet Auckland afternoon.
French wasn’t the only Eel to bag multiple tries, hooker Isaac de Gois also got in on the act, scoring a double of his own. Semi Radradra, Michael Jennings and French were simply too much for the Warriors to contain, they broke the defensive line almost at will as the Warriors compounded their problems with 15 errors to Parramatta’s 7.
But it didn’t look like this would be the result early on. The Warriors started hot and were out to a 12-0 lead after just seven minutes thanks to tries to Manu Vatuvei and Simon Mannering.
An Eels knock-on in a dangerous position gave departing Warriors five-eighth Thomas Leuluai the opportunity to slip a grubber into the corner, with which Vatuvei made no mistake. The side then extended their lead when stalwart Mannering got on the end of an Issac Luke inside ball to crash over near the posts.
The Warriors were also dominating ball possession. Then they lapsed and handling errors, a hallmark of the their unsuccessful finals tilt, ushered the Eels back into the contest.
Makeshift fullback Tuimoala Lolohea knocked on in front of his tryline in the 17th minute, letting De Gois in to score before the Eels hooker grabbed a farcical second. Luke dropped the ball attempting to collect his own 20th minute scrum feed, handing De Gois four points on a plate.
Parramatta then took the lead in the 28th minute when Radradra eased into the corner, before Mannering claimed the lead back for the Warriors after running into a defensive hole.
Eels fullback French capitalised on a Radradra gallop to reclaim the lead once again in a half that ended 22-18. The second stanza started poorly for the Warriors, with French crossing for two simple tries. The rookie fullback strolled through a hole from dummy half for his second, before grabbing his third when centre David Fusitu’a spilled a potential intercept in the 46th minute.
A late disallowed try to rookie Nathaniel Roache, followed by a Michael Jennings try for the Eels made the damp afternoon truly miserable for the Warriors, who failed to make the finals for a fifth consecutive year.
