Roosters overcome slow start to overrun Raiders

The Roosters have overcome a slow start to overrun the Raiders on their way to posting a 34-20 win.

The Raiders raced to a 10-0 lead early, but once the Roosters got their heads in the game, they were able to shutdown the challenge and post their fourth win. 

It was an exciting opening to the match with Raiders co-captain Simaima Taufa scoring in the opening minute after hitting an Ash Quinlan pass in a great line and running through the middle of the field. 

Jasmin Strange nearly got one back for the Roosters, but lost the ball over the line thanks to the attention from Raiders fullback Apii Nicholls. However, the Roosters got the ball back as the Raiders were deemed to be offside - but they could not make the possession count, with Tarryn Aiken getting her hands and the ball over the line, only to lose control of the ball as she attempted to get it down for their opening score. 

Instead, it was the Raiders going further in front with some nice wide passing out to their left finding Madison Bartlett who was able to get the ball down.

The Roosters were finally on the board when Amber Hall proved too much to handle, defying three defenders to get the ball down to score. They then went back-to-back to score two more tries thanks to Mia Wood before the break to go out to a 16-10 lead, aided by the Raiders losing England forward Hollie-Mae Dodd to the sinbin for a hip-drop tackle on Keeley Davis.

The Raiders were also hampered by the loss of co-captain Taufa who failed her HIA early in the first half, ruling her out of the match. Canberra missed her hard carries, but her fellow forwards did try hard step up, but the side let in too many tries in the middle part of the game. 

After the break, the Roosters posted two more tries back-to-back to surge further in front, with Eliza Lopamaua and Tiana Davison - in a special effort just before the dead ball line - helping their side to a 28-10 lead.

A 40/30 kick from Ash Quinlan did a good job of changing the momentum for the Raiders and they finally had some attack on the Roosters line, but were not able to immediately break through.

However, it did show the Raiders weren't giving up and they were the next to score when Mackenzie Wiki took a cut-out pass from Zahara Temara, running hard at the line and breaking through to narrow the margin to 28-14. 

However, a length-of-the-field effort from Tarryn Aiken, who picked off a kick from her own tryline and sprinted away from defenders to score put paid to the fightback.

While the Raiders continued to fight hard with Dodd showing plenty of strength as she reached out to touch the ball on the line to again narrow the scores, with Temara's conversion making it 34-20, that was the end of the scoring for the match.