Canberra's strong early-season form continued as they registered a comfortable 18 point victory over a Panthers side whose season is starting to slip away. The Raiders finished 30-12 winners in the NSW Riverina city of Wagga Wagga. The Raiders opened the scoring in the 9th minute when Sam Williams put in a nice grubber on the right side for Michael Oldfield, who ran between two defenders, regathered and scored a good try. Jarrod Croker converted. The game had plenty of niggle and the occasional flare up. It was also dominated by cheap turnovers and ill-discipline, mostly by Penrith. However it was after back-to-back penalties by the Raiders on their own line in the 20th minute resulted in fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad being sin-binned. Isaah Yeo went down in a heavy tackle and reportedly dislocated his shoulder. In the 26th minute Canberra crossed again after they kept the ball alive, with some good offloads by their big men on the left side before Jack Wighton got the ball, stepped and got himself over the line for a good try. Croker converted again. A minute later Josh Bateman came off after a head clash and was reported as having fractured his eye socket. After a James Maloney drop out went out on the full five minutes before half time, Croker soon kicked a penalty goal to extended the Raiders' lead to 14.
