Palmerston Raiders hold on despite being down to 11 men to beat Nightcliff Dragons in NRL NT round 13

Despite being two men down late in the match Palmerston Raiders held on through forward power to win 22-12 over Nightcliff Dragons in round 13 of the 2021 NRL NT season.

Palmerston Raiders full back Alex Johnson credited the win to his forward pack. Picture: Glenn Campbell

DEPSITE being two men down late in the game Palmerston Raiders held on through forward power to win 22-12 over Nightcliff Dragons in round 13 of the 2021 NRL NT season.

It was one way traffic for the Palmerston side early on with their big forwards pushing up the middle as they’re renowned for.

That early dominance around the breakdown allowed Blake Fletcher to put toe to ball putting a grubber through for Will Beers to pounce on for the opening score.

Nightcliff responded soon after showing while they’re the current league leaders poking holes in the Raiders’ defence with Robbie Butcher taking a pass from Brent Crisp to pop over the line.

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Palmerston came back once again with Tom Murphy adding plenty of variety in his service from dummy half setting Will Beers up for his second try.

Nightcliff were forced to withstand further assaults on their line with Palmerston coming again and again.

But a crucial penalty and the sendoff of Raiders’ Anthony Orrell shifted momentum back in the Dragons’ favour late in the first half.

But despite the setback Palmerston kept coming using the strength of Joel Turaga to burst through tackle after tackle.

And the Raiders benefitted from his bulldozing runs plenty of times in the second half putting Murphy in key position to score.

That favour was reciprocated by the hooker soon after with Murphy putting a crafty pass through to Turaga who barged through the Dragons’ defence to score a try of his own.

Some clever moves saw Nightcliff get another score through Jone Vakacegu, which turned out even better for Dragons when Murphy was sent from the field.

The Dragons smelled a chance there but costly mistakes let them down and with too little time on the clock to chase down the win.

Raiders’ captain Alex Johnson marshalled his troops all day from full back and was proud to get the win.

“It’s coming together for us. We’re slowly starting to get our players back and starting to play some good footy on the back of that,” Johnson said.

“Our forwards set the tone through the middle and we just worked off the back of that work. But it was off the back of winning that battle in the middle.

“Going down to 11 was hard work. Once again the forwards in the middle held it out for us and that’s really what allowed us to hold on and take that win.”

The Palmerston women also enjoyed a big 34-10 win over Nightcliff to nail on their finals position with Ciara Aigea once again impressing with a hat-trick of tries.

Shayla Barba, Michala Shaw, Shanoah Leedie, Yasmin Isaac and Keam Nona were also among the try scorers.

Darwin Brothers have put themselves well and truly in the A-grade finals equation with a 24-20 win over second place Northern Sharks with Nick Yarran crossing for two tries.