The Canberra Raiders' charge towards back-to-back Toyota Cup premierships came to a shuddering halt with a 42-34 loss to Wests Tigers at the Sydney Football Stadium last night.
The reigning premier was left to rue a horror first 37 minutes, during which the Tigers streaked to a 36-0 lead in the first semi-final.
Tigers fullback Jake Mullaney was the chief destroyer, amassing 24 first-half points through three tries and six conversions.
The Raiders rallied to score seven of the final eight tries, but never looked like winning.
Coach Andrew McFadden said his team had given the Tigers far too much of a head start.
McFadden said his team's fighting finish was ''little consolation'' for the fact it had been bundled out of the competition.
''I think it was seven tries all in the end, but we gave them too much start and you can't do that in semi-finals,'' McFadden said.
''The game got away from us very early on and that's really disappointing to be honest.
''Certainly a few things didn't go our way with the bounce of the ball early. But you've got to be able to bounce back from that sort of stuff and I don't think we handled that very well.''
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