Fans at Allegiant Stadium are used to seeing the Raiders win football games but this time around it was the Canberra NRL side proving too quick, too smart and way too strong for the Warriors from Auckland in a 30-8 rout.
The Las Vegas Raiders finished with one of the worst records in the NFL and the NRL version is predicted to do likewise in 2025 but based on the opening-round performance, Ricky Stuart’s ragtag bunch will punch above their weight again.
They were in the headlines for fighting of a different kind during the week after Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies were involved in a scuffle at the team hotel but the Warriors needed more than an inflatable baseball bat to bring down the Raiders on game day.
While Canberra were clever with their game plan and clinical in executing their plays, the Warriors were dreadful, offering little in attack and regularly looking confused in defence as they fell off tackles.
Raiders reign in Vegas
With the field five metres narrower than usual due to the dimensions of the NFL coliseum, the Raiders wisely decided to attack through quick play-the-balls and splitting the Warriors up the middle rather than send it wide.
“There is a big difference with this field in regards to the width, you’ve got to play a different game,” Stuart told Fox League straight after full-time.
Tom Starling normally is his most effective as a bench hooker against tiring defenders but after getting the starting role to ease young apprentice Owen Pattie into his debut off the bench, he made the most of his shot in the No.9 jersey.
Starling scooted clear in the fourth minute for the first line break of the season before Seb Kris reached out to plant the ball on the stripe for a 6-0 lead on the next play.
Savelio Tamale is tackled. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Warriors prop Mitchell Barnett would have levelled the scores if local rules were in effect after breaking the plane of the end zone with the ball but he didn’t get it to ground.
The Green Machine went 10-0 up on the back of another Starling break when Xavier Savage finished off a right-side raid.
Just when the Warriors looked like they were about to hit back there was a 12-point swing when Savage intercepted Luke Metcalf’s final pass to race 95 metres the other way.
Savage, who got engaged in Vegas earlier in the week, didn’t have it all his own way in the first half – he was reported for dangerous late contact to the legs of Chanel Harris-Tavita after a clearing kick.
Warriors fullback Charnze Nicole-Klokstad was also put on the match review committee’s radar for raising his boot into Corey Horsburgh after defusing a bomb.
The Warriors pegged the deficit back to 16-4 at the break when Savage gambled on another intercept and Kurt Capewell touched down.
Canberra regained the momentum early in the second half when Nicoll-Klokstad fumbled a bomb and Kris pounced on the ricochet for a 22-4 advantage.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck fumbled the high-speed put-down for a grubber soon after before the contest was put to bed in the 55th minute when Savage and Zac Hosking combined to send Matt Timoko flying away for a 24-point buffer.
Even when Joseph Tapine was sin-binned in the 65th minute to offer a slight glimpse of hope to the Warriors, they struggled to make the most of the advantage before Tuivasa-Sheck was able to muscle his way over in the left corner.
Ricky has last laugh once again
Canberra have again been installed by the experts as one of the teams that will prop up the bottom rungs of the ladder in 2025 and Ricky Stuart is again being fuelled by that disrespect.
Stuart’s side looked primed for this match whereas the Warriors played like a team still working out off-season training combinations.
Canberra’s pack dominated their counterparts with their key playmakers in Starling, Jamal Fogarty and Ethan Strange running amok on the back of that advantage as they racked up six line breaks to two.
“People under-estimate these guys. It was brutal in the middle there tonight,” Stuart said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. We had a really good off-season and I think it shows.
“It’s going to be a tough competition if we’re gonna run last.”
The only concern for Stuart before they return home for a Round 2 clash with Brisbane on March 15 is Tapine’s shoulder-charge which is likely to attract a ban of a week or two from the match reviewers.
What happens in Vegas, doesn’t always stay there.
Warriors wasting RTS on the wing
Tuivasa-Sheck is a former Dally M Medal winner and one of the NRL’s best attacking weapons.
He is being wasted on the wing.
You can see the thinking behind the move from coach Andrew Webster after the 31-year-old dual Kiwi international had a modest first season back from his All Blacks foray at centre.
He could have an impact like Zac Lomax did at St George Illawarra last year when he was pushed out to the flank to maximise his high catching skills and powerful running.
RTS made more runs than any other Warriors with 23 and racked up more than 200 running metres against the Raiders.
But while the quantity was great, the Warriors would get better results if he was able to provide his quality from fullback.
He would be able to create more attack if he could bob up on either side of the ruck from fullback while he is also a superb cover defender.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad is a very good fullback but the team would not lose much if he was shifted to five-eighth or centre and the Warriors would gain a helluva lot more if Tuivasa-Sheck was unleashed from the back rather than stuck on the left wing.
