Raiders' second-half woes continue with Knights loss

The Raiders were again their own worst enemies as their second-half woes continued.

They failed to score a point in the final 40 minutes to go down to the Newcastle Knights 24-16 at Wagga Wagga on Saturday.

They'd led 16-0 at half-time before capitulating after the break.

The Raiders had their opportunities, but poor decision making proved costly as they squandered numerous chances.

They're now on the wrong side of a second-half points tally of 137 to 50 in second halves.

Their fifth straight loss heaps further pressure on the misfiring Green Machine.

Canberra's misery was further compounded by injuries to Ryan Sutton (elbow), Joe Tapine (knee) and Jordan Rapana (hamstring).

Everything had looked so good going into the second half, with George Williams putting a tough week behind him with a blinding first half.

The England international came under the spotlight following revelations he and his pregnant partner were struggling with homesickness.

His kicking game was on-song and he produced a brilliant cutout pass for Bailey Simonsson to score.

That added to a brilliant Tapine try to set up the dominant half-time lead.

Tapine's also had a tough time, having been dropped a couple of weeks ago.

He showed great hands to take a cracking ball from winger Rapana, who'd ducked in off his right edge.

The Raiders had tormented Knights' star fullback Kalyn Ponga in the first half - whether it was Williams' kicking game or a big shot put on him by Rapana.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said it felt like everything was going against them.

"Losing two players doesn't help, it's not an excuse, but losing two middles doesn't help," Stuart said.

"I think it was four times we were over the line or nearly over the line.

"When you haven't got anything going for you and you're going through patches like this it just seems to pile on on top of each other as it as at the moment."

The Raiders' second-half woes didn't take long to emerge - the Knights regathered a short restart and instantly went on the attack.

From there Ponga took over as he looked a different player after the break.

Connor Watson darted out of dummy half and put halfback Phoenix Crossland through a hole just two minutes in.

Ponga dummied past Tom Starling before Frizell was too strong for three Raiders defenders.

Raiders fullback Caleb Aekins had a chance to put the Green Machine back in front, but he bounced his put-down of a great Williams grubber.

Then Knights hooker Jayden Brailey sealed it from a Ponga offload.

The home side squandered several chances in the closing minutes, at times pushing passes or kicks when taking the tackle might have been the better option.

Knights coach Adam O'Brien said the coaching staff had been looking at short restarts the past few weeks before finally unleashing it against the Raiders.

"Willie [Peters], the assistant coach, brought it up at half-time that we might need this and they grabbed it," O'Brien said.

"It was definitely important that we started well in the second half.

"In the second half in particular [Ponga was influential]. If he wasn't touching the ball three times a set it would've been four.

"I thought he was really busy at the end and he saps energy out of the opposition when he's just in and around that middle."

AT A GLANCE

NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 24 (Phoenix Crossland, Kalyn Ponga, Tyson Frizell, Jayden Brailey tries; Ponga 4 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 16 (Joe Tapine, Bailey Simonsson tries; George Williams 4 goals) at Wagga Wagga. Referee: Adam Gee. Crowd: 6642.