Canberra Raiders coach David Furner doesn't like to admit it, but his team continued to live up to its reputation as NRL finals' pests at Canberra Stadium last night.
With nothing left to play for except pride, the Raiders opened up the top-eight race with a convincing 30-14 win over the Newcastle Knights.
The Knights could have wrapped up their first finals berth in three years by beating Canberra.
Instead they have to beat the Penrith Panthers on Sunday to remain in premiership contention.
And while Furner said he didn't use opposition teams' title aspirations as motivation, it certainly roused his players.
The Raiders ran in four first-half tries and continued their aggressive mentality against the top teams to win their last home game of the season.
The performance was so good in wet conditions it prompted Knights centre Adam MacDougall to declare the Raiders ''the hardest side to play at home other than Melbourne''.
''On the way they played tonight they're definitely a top-eight side,'' MacDougall said.
''They're a physical side, they're a big side and as [Knights coach] Rick [Stone] said they're probably arguably the hardest side to play at home other than Melbourne.
''They've shown that in their last couple of wins against Brisbane when they beat them by 50 and obviously against the Dragons as well.''
CANBERRA RAIDERS 30 (P Graham 2, B Harrison, A Tongue, D Vidot tries; T Campese 5 goals) bt NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 14 (C Vuna 2, J Sau tries; K Gidley goal) at Canberra Stadium. Referees: Matt Cecchin, Ashley Klein. Crowd: 9400.
Full match report in today's Canberra Times
Email a friend