Raiders lead with Whitehead's tries, despite sin bin, Roosters fight back but fall short.
Just minutes later, the Raiders took the lead when Elliot Whitehead powered over from close range. Not long after Whitehead contributed to a try again, this time making an offload for Simi Sasagi to cross. Even when Whitehead went to the sin bin for a hip drop that forced Brandon Smith off the field with a knee issue, the Raiders did not crack and took a 10-2 lead to half time.
After weathering the rest of the storm while Whitehead was in the bin, the Raiders pushed their lead to 12 when a poor Luke Keary pass eventually found its way into Xavier Savage, who simply was not going to be caught. That made it 14-2, and it should have been game over.
But when Whitehead used his foot to try and strike the ball out of the hands of Angus Crichton, all hell broke loose. Whitehead went to the sin bin again, and this time the Roosters capitalised with a Daniel Tupou try. But despite dominating possession over the net 10 minutes, the Roosters could not cross the line and again you'd be forgiven for thinking the Raiders were home and hosed.