Thrilling golden point win for Canberra Raiders in Wagga

The Raiders came out firing and scored the first 18 points of the clash before the Dolphins, who have shown plenty of fight in their debut season, charged back into the contest at Equex Centre on Saturday.

However after overturning a 26-0 deficit last week to take victory, there was to be no thrilling comeback win this time around.

Instead Jamal Fogarty rose to the occasion to slot his first NRL field goal to hand Canberra a 31-30 victory.

Fogarty was thrilled to come up with the big play when it mattered most.

"It's very good to kick my first one in the NRL," Fogarty said.

"I had a couple opportunities earlier and shanked one but we have a little call of where we want to get to and I was lucky enough to get a quick play the ball, Tommy (Starling) gave me a good pass and I was lucky enough to send it through the posts."

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Fresh off the bye, the Raiders became the first team all season to score in the opening set as captain Jarrod Croker crossed out wide.

The Raiders extended their good start when Corey Horsburgh produced a superb offload to put away Jack Wighton to score next to the posts.

It took nine minutes for the Dolphins to get their hands on the ball but the Raiders defence didn't take long to get the ball back after forcing an error.

Croker edged his team further in front with a penalty goal before Jordan Rapana helped Canberra to an 18-0 lead after 21 minutes.

After earning his side another set after knocking a kick back in field, Rapana was on the end of some quick passes from Wighton and Sebastian Kris.

There has been plenty of attention on Wighton after announcing his move to South Sydney next season however he let him game do most of the talking.

Just as the Raiders looked to be right on top, some soft defence on the right edge saw Euan Aitken score from dummy half following a break from Connelly Lemuelu with 13 minutes left in the half.

The competition newcomers cut the margin to six points after Brenko Lee pushed off Croker before finding Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow who quickly put Jamayne Isaako into space before he found his fullback back on the inside to score with nine to play.

Canberra were able to change the momentum leading into the break when Kris sliced through to score from 45 metres out after a Wighton pass almost escaped him for a 22-12 lead at half-time.

Canberra extended their lead after the break through another Croker penalty goal before Kodi Nikorima started to really make an impact in the game.

With 22 minutes left he sliced through Elliot Whitehead and Fogarty before finding Lemuelu and four minutes later the Dolphins second rower had his second to level things with 18 minutes to play.

Fogarty put the Raiders back in front after Robert Jennings failed to control a Fogarty kick which bounced fortuitously for Corey Harawira-Naera who found his halfback.

Their lead was short lived when Dolphins captain Jesse Bromwich spun through the Raiders defence to level things again with seven minutes left to play.

Canberra had a couple of chances late to find a match winner, including a close field goal miss from Fogarty right before full-time.

However they took advantage of a lucky repeat set call to get Fogarty in the right position to slot the winning point.

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