Raiders stun Dragons to stay alive
Canberra handed St George Illawarra its biggest loss of the season with a punishing 32-16 win in front of 20,445 fans in the nation's capital on Sunday afternoon.
The league-leading Dragons have not won in Canberra since July 2000, and while they were in for a chance with a 4-0 half-time lead thanks to Brett Morris, the hosts ran in five tries after the break to snatch their third-straight win.
Josh Dugan scooped up a Jamie Soward kick and ran 85 metres to score with barely a Dragons hand touching him, while Terry Campese got one of his own when his own grubber bounced perfectly into his arms for the captain to carry the ball across the line.
When Joe Picker raced away to increase the home side's lead to 26-4 with 14 minutes to play, it looked like victory was inevitable.
But the Dragons refused to lay down and scored two converted tries to give the Raiders a scare and their faithful fans a nervous finish.
Campese was elated after the full-time siren, hailing an "awesome" effort but admitting the Raiders' defence needs fine-tuning.
"[That was] the best win I've been involved in," he told Grandstand.
"I've that a few times this year actually but we're going from behind four points against the best side in the comp and coming back, and throwing the ball around and making breaks.
"Just the way we defended, we let in a few easy tries there, but we'll look at that through the week."
Canberra's chances of playing finals football are looking increasingly good with the two points pushing the Green Machine to the cusp of a top-eight berth, with only an inferior for-and-against keeping them from overtaking struggling Brisbane.
St George Illawarra could have locked up its second minor premiership with a win, but instead the number one spot remains attainable should Wests Tigers or the Gold Coast win their remaining games.
With the Cowboys heading to Canberra in round 25, Campese cited the clash as another opportunity for the club's supporters to turn out in force and cheer the Raiders into the eight.
"[It will be] good to get more next week just keep our season alive," he said.
"[We're] still [taking] each week as it comes, Cowboys next week and hopefully we can get all the fans out to support us.
"You've got to come here with the same attitude that you're playing against the best sides.
"I'm sure we'll look at that through the week and come out here Saturday night and put up a really good performance."
The first half was a crunching affair with big hits wearing down the forward packs on both ends of the park.
Defensive intensity was at its highest when St George looked to increase its lead going into the break, but the green wall held firm.
Canberra had plenty of chances to put points on the board in the first 40 minutes, but it could simply not penetrate the league's most effective defence.
The Raiders should have taken notes from the Dragons' stopping power; Mark Gasnier and Neville Costigan both crossed for relatively unchallenged to somewhat narrow the margin.
Glen Buttriss proved to be the difference after half-time, only getting off the bench after half-time but instantly sparking Canberra into attack with some clever ballwork out of dummy half.
Campese was impressed with Buttriss' showing.
"He's good out of dummy-half and he has come back from injury playing some really good football... and showed where he is this year," he said.
"He's of contract too so hopefully he can get a contract with the boys, because he's such a good talent for the team."
Wayne Bennett's men copped some salt in the wound, with Costigan going on report inside the first three minutes of the match after thumping Raiders lock Trevor Thurling with a swinging arm.
Raiders: 32 (D Vidot, T Campese, J Dugan, J Picker, G Buttriss tries; J Croker 3/5 conversions)
Dragons: 16 (B Morris, M Gasnier, N Costigan tries; J Soward 2/3 conversions)
ABC Sport - Raiders stun Dragons to stay alive
