The New Zealand Warriors have dominated the Canberra Raiders by 22 points at Mt Smart Stadium.
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The Warriors have backed up their good form of late to post another victory.
Konrad Hurrell was in a devastating mood and Shaun Johnson ran the show as usual.
The Raiders have a terrible record in Auckland and this continued on a very tough night.
It was mostly one-way traffic in the match, as the Warriors almost scored at will.
The first try came from Bodene Thompson.
The big forward forced his way over after a shift to the right side.
But the Raiders responded quickly and it was another forward who did the damage.
A silkly offload from Sia Soliola managed to fool the Warriors’ defence and put Jack Wighton through.
The young fullback sliced through and the Raiders were back in the game.
A penalty to Jarrod Croker put them in front 8-6.
But it didn’t last long.
A try to Tuimoala Lolohea gave the Warriors the lead back.
It was all thanks to Hurrell, who was frightening as he ran the ball.
The centre knocked over a few defenders and got a lovely offload away for Lolohea to score.
The Warriors went into half-time with a 14-8 lead after Johnson slotted a penalty.
In the second half the home team stepped up a gear or two.
And it was their little halfback, the 2014 Golden Boot winner, who kicked things off.
Johnson dummied and stepped to cross for a beautiful solo try.
Johnson is virtually impossible to stop when he plays like this.
The playmaker has really hit his straps in the past month.
But he was supported well by the likes of Hurrell, Lolohea, Simon Mannering, Chad Townsend and Ryan Hoffman.
Nothing was going right for the Raiders.
Lolohea got his second try of the game off a Johnson kick.
The outside back is having a great rookie season.
Manu Vatuvei got on the scoresheet a few minutes before half-time thanks to a terrible error.
Canberra halfback Sam Williams was trying to spark his team but he floated a pass over to Vatuvei.
The winger gleefully accepted and touched down for the simplest of tries.
That mistake summed up the Raiders’ night.
The win puts the Warriors in seventh spot on the NRL ladder with 18 points.
They are on the same points as the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters in sixth and fifth.
Crucially, they are hitting top form at the business end of the season.
For the Raiders it’s a worrying sign. They struggled to break the Warriors line and only scored one try.
They hardly had the ball or field position in one of the most one-sided games in terms of possession in recent memory.
It’s back to the training paddock for the Raiders who have struggled in recent weeks.
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