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The Cowboys have come back from 12-0 down at half-time to record a 18-12 victory over the Raiders in Canberra on Thursday night.
Tom Starling and Jordan Rapana both crossed in the opening quarter hour to give the hosts a perfect start against a Cowboys team that offered desperately little in the opening half hour of the contest.
However, the Cowboys came out a different team in the second half, crossing though Heilum Luki, Valentine Holmes and Jeremiah Nani to completely flip the script in the nations capital.
"That's a tough one to swallow, definitely," Jack Wighton told ABC Grandstand after the match.
"We're focusing on completions and still just let them out of trouble with s***y errors and penalties."
It is the eighth time in the last two seasons that the Raiders have let slip a double-digit lead in an NRL game, prompting some supporters to boo the team off the field at full time.
The win gives the Cowboys a second win in six rounds against the Raiders, who lost 26-6 when they met in Townsville in round two.
Those scenes at the final siren would have been unthinkable after the opening exchanges as the Raiders got off to a brilliant start.
Starling darted over in just the third minute from dummy half after shimmying left, stepping right and then throwing a huge dummy before diving under the posts untouched.
Rapana made the most of an enormous overlap on the right shortly after, having the time to turn to catch the ball from Corey Harawira-Naera's tap-pass and score in the corner.
The visitors were insipid and uninspired in attack and would have been relieved to only be 12-0 down at the break as the Raiders failed to make more of their dominance.
While the Cowboys came out with far more purpose in the second period, the Raiders had completely switched off, giving away repeat penalties to hand their guests handy field position, after which Luki barged over.
The Cowboys grew in confidence, with Holmes breaking the Raiders line straight through the middle in the set after the try was scored.
His next line break resulted in the equalising score, the centre flying through some weak tackling to score under the posts.
Second rower Nanai, who gave away four of the Cowboys eight penalties in the first half, also grew into his role.
The 19-year-old forced the error from Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad which led to the Cowboys opening try and then scored the winner, latching onto a wonderful kick through by Scott Drinkwater.
The Raiders could not muster the handling skills required to mount a serious challenge in the closing minutes to fall to a third-successive NRL defeat.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart will also be sweating on the fitness of Nicoll-Klokstad, who left the field with a lower right leg injury late in the second half.
Xavier Savage came in for what was the 19-year-old's fourth start, only to be immediately dragged into touch and appear to injure his shoulder, although he was able to finish the game.