‘Ricky will be furious’: Glaring reason Raiders ‘don’t stack up’ brutally exposed
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“I just feel that it was gone by their right-hand defence. They were lacking in confidence,” Roosters premiership second-rower Bryan Fletcher said, with Burns strolling through Zac Hosking and Jamal Fogarty for his decisive try, before the same players were beaten by a grubber from Wilton.
“The Sharks could smell blood in the water, they kept going at it. What typifies it, pretty much sums it up for me, they (Canberra) got back to 12-all, it’s in a semi-final, you’re at home, and Billy Burns scores a try (where) nothing is on. There is no decoy, it’s just hard running, and you’re in a semi-final and you let this happen.
Fogarty had a tough night in his final game for the Raiders before moving to Manly, in a sad end to a terrific season for the veteran No.7.
Manly premiership five-eighth Kieran Foran added: “There’s been a disconnect on their right-side defence for some time now, and it really is between Fogarty and (Matt) Timoko there. They just tend to want to map everything, go into slide straight away.
“I don’t think they varied it up enough in terms of their jam defence and sliding defence. They always showed their hand early and the Sharks clearly did their homework and targeted that area.”
Foran added: “He looked nervous. He kicked OK throughout the contest, I thought he nailed a few spiralling kicks, but ultimately what we spoke about at the start of the game was around his defence and his organisation.
“He has pressure on him coming into the game for key moments, big moments under pressure. But tonight, it wasn’t so much those moments, it was his execution in attack that let him down but also his reads in defence,” Anasta said.