Palmerston Raiders captalise on early scores to survive contest against Darwin Brothers

PALMERSTON Raiders took advatange of early scores to run out 32-14 over the Darwin Brothers in Round 6 of the NRL NT A-grade Premiership

Stephen Smith tackled by Matthew Bennett as Raiders take on the Darwin Brothers. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

PALMERSTON Raiders took advatange of early scores to run out 32-14 over the Darwin Brothers in Round 6 of the NRL NT A-grade Premiership.

Both sides ran in somewhat depleted having lost crucial players to injury in recent weeks allowing younger players to step into the first team.

Palmerston broke the scoring deadlock first muscling over after forcing Brothers on the defensive for nine minutes.

A second try this time to centre Beau Black came soon after turning the game further in favour of the undefeated Raiders, though missed kicks kept scoring low.

MORE NT SPORT STORIES

NRL NT 2020 top five after five rounds

South Darwin forfeits A-grade match against Bears

Unbeaten Raiders weary of Brothers challenge

However, a brace of defence cutting tries from Brothers young guns Isaac Kurnoth and Nick Yarren, split by a third Raiders try, kept the Brethren in the contest at the half.

Handling errors left a third try begging for Brothers in the second half but Palmerston didn’t make the same mistake moving well up the field to send Rodney Barbar over the line for his second.

Stephen Smith also managed his second of the night for Raiders all but putting the game to bed

Kurnoth had a brace of his own in sights for Brothers spinning through tackles to dot down over the line.

However, Palmerston’s wing defence through Tevita Kanalangi and Clifford Timms denied any further resistance.

Palmerston full back Alex Johnson was proud of his side’s efforts in pulling out the win in in spite of injuries to some crucial players.

“It was a scrappy win but with a bit of inexperience around the squad that’s going to be the case,” Johnson told the Sunday Territorian.

“Our completions particularly in the first 10-15 minutes of each half really helped us get points on the board early and give us a bit of breathing room as we always knew Brothers were coming.

“We just need to keep working hard from now and keep our focus as best as we can.

We have another tough game against Sharks coming up so we will be training hard to hopefully get the win there again and take the rest of this season week by week.”

LIMITED TIME: Discounted NT News subscription offer: $1 a week for the first 12 weeks

Meanwhile, in other A-grade action Nightcliff bounced back from last week’s loss to beat Sharks 44-18 with Hodrick Mudu scoring two tries.

While South Darwin forfeited their match against Litchfield.