Not only did the NRL have the first game at the new Parramatta Stadium. They had the first soccer game there as well.
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Fittingly, it was a clean sheet, too, for the Canberra Raiders as they blanked Wests Tigers at Parramatta Stadium on Friday night.
It's the first time in history the Raiders have kept three opponents scoreless in a season after also holding out Parramatta and the Gold Coast.
The Western Sydney Wanderers were meant to be the first soccer team to play at the new stadium, but someone forgot to tell the Green Machine and their English brigade.
They were seen juggling the ball with their feet before the game and it didn't take long for them to put those skills into effect once the game started.
Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman both showed their deft skills with the boot, and not to be outdone Nick Cotric got in on the act to show his knee was OK after his injury scare in his State of Origin debut.
Whitehead's flick would've made Argentinian legend Diego Maradona proud, flicking it up for Bailey Simonsson to open the scoring.
Then Cotric produced a centimetre-perfect soccer for winger Jordan Rapana to score in his 100th NRL game.
It capped off a brilliant Aidan Sezer break on halfway, with the halfback grubbering to the corner for Cotric. Bateman made it a hat-trick before half-time with his deft little grubber in behind the Wests line for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad to gather and give back to Bateman to score.
Sezer had been a late inclusion from Raiders coach Ricky Stuart, opting to bring him into the halves to partner the returning Jack Wighton in place of Sam Williams.
Sezer had a slow start - his first grubber went dead in goal, but he wasn't Robinson Crusoe, with the Tigers playmakers also struggling to keep the ball in play early.
But he warmed into the game and capped it off with a runaway intercept try with six minutes to go.
He also played a crucial role in Rapana's try, backing his running game on the fifth tackle in the middle of the park. Sezer also ran for 122 metres and had more than 300 kick metres to boot.
Wighton didn't have the biggest game, but he didn't need to and did enough to put his Origin intercept pass in the past.
He made a crucial tackle - stopping Corey Thompson from scoring - in another emphatic defensive effort from the Green Machine.
In terms of Origin efforts, you couldn't go past Josh Papalii.
He backed up from his Queensland win on Wednesday with another massive effort in the middle after coming off the bench. Papalii ran for 170 metres as he again kept the Raiders on the front foot as he's done time and time again.
Normal service resumed in the second half with the soccer skills consigned to the first.
Raiders captain Jarrod Croker has set up a chance to equal or break Jason Croker's Raiders try-scoring record in front of his own fans against Cronulla on Thursday night.
He capped off a big Wighton break by charging to the corner on the next tackle to bring his tally to 119 - just one behind Jason.
Then came Sezer's effort to ensure the comprehensive victory and move them back into the top four ahead of Newcastle on points differential.
The Tigers' woes were compounded by losing star Benji Marshall to an eye injury, while Mahe Fonua also limped from the field with an ankle injury.
He'd earlier gone off for a head injury assessment, but returned.
The closest the home team came to breaching the Raiders' defence was for a try disallowed for offside.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad continues to put his name forward as one of the buys of the season, alongside Bateman, again handling everything at the back and continuing to produce the hard carries they need.
Then the Viking clap reverberated around the Parramatta Stadium. One Raiders fans will be hoping can be replicated in Civic in the coming years.
CANBERRA RAIDERS 28 (Bailey Simonsson, Jordan Rapana, John Bateman, Jarrod Croker, Aidan Sezer tries; Croker 4 goals) bt WESTS TIGERS 0 at Parramatta Stadium. Referees: Matt Cecchin, Adam Cassidy. Crowd: 12,585.
