Marshall wasn’t wrong. The Tigers had stars all over the shop including rookie winger and local product Luke Laulilii, who found out on game day, 10 days after his 18th birthday, that he was making his NRL debut, in place of Charlie Staines (out due to illness).
Laulilii was the 10th Tigers debutant this season. The average age of Benji Marshall’s side clocks in at 23, three short of the NRL average.
Luke Laulilii (right) and Lachlan Galvin celebrate the former’s try on debut.Credit: Getty Images
He had himself a try within 10 minutes and billing as the sixth NRL graduate from the Western Suburbs’ much-vaunted 2022 Harold Matthews side.
“Kids bring energy and confidence,” Marshall said, “and we are going places in the future but we still want to win now and we still can win now. We’ve just got to keep backing that up.”
It was Galvin who started the Tigers’ rout in just the third minute. Ethan Strange had Canberra’s first points all but on the board only for Brent Naden to go all-in on the intercept and race 70 metres. Galvin then strode through a disjointed defensive line for a 12-point turnaround.
Twenty minutes later, the Tigers could have easily led by 20 or 30. Only a couple of tight but correct Bunker calls, and two try-saving efforts on the Raiders’ goal line, kept them in it.
Sione Fainu was held up once before eventually stepping his way through three mediocre attempted tackles for an 18-0 lead.
After the break, the Tigers just marched right on. Galvin had his second, Jahream Bula got on the board and when Stefano Utoikamanu – who has a $4 million, five-year extension on the table – charged over, any thought of a Raiders revival should have been put to bed.
Ricky Stuart was livid with the Raiders performance, threatening to make changes given “I’ve got too many individuals taking soft options” in his Canberra outfit.
Centre Sebastian Kris flagged a complaint against Tigers prop Stefano Utoikamanu in the first half for an alleged hair pull, but the Raiders presented little else of note until the hour mark.
Adam Doueihi capped his comeback with an intercept try.Credit: Getty Images
Trailing 42-8 with 19 minutes to play, the Raiders briefly threatened what would have been a record revival with tries to Nick Cotric, Kaeo Weekes and Ethan Strange to keep the Campbelltown locals nervous.
“Don’t get too excited [that] we scored some tries in the back end,” Stuart said.
Loading
“The game was over and they had 12 men (with Alex Seyfarth sin-binned).”
Fittingly, it was Adam Doueihi, playing his first NRL game since his third ACL rupture, who ended the fightback, latching onto an intercept and racing 75 metres to score.
The Tigers welcomed him with their second win on the trot, relegating Parramatta to last place on the ladder and finally, riding high in the west once again.
Watch State of Origin exclusively Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now