Canberra spoiled Cronulla’s fresh start as the Raiders ran out 24-20 victors in a spite-filled NRL clash at Remondis Stadium on Sunday.

The Sharks were hoping to put their 2014 season behind them, after it was marred by the ASADA investigation into the club’s 2012 supplements program, but were sluggish out of the blocks.

The game reached a flash point when Canberra fullback Jack Wighton and Sosaia Feki were both sin-binned for throwing punches in the second half.

After the Raiders led 14-6 at halftime, the Sharks took the lead with 20 minutes left on the clock thanks to a Michael Gordon penalty goal.

However when Wade Graham spilled a Canberra bomb, the Raiders capitalised through Sisa Waqa to snare the lead and never gave it up.

Both of Canberra’s first-half tries came through poor pieces of play by Ben Barba, playing in his first game in Cronulla colours after switching from Brisbane.

When Barba failed to find touch from a penalty, the Raiders marched down field and opened the scoring through Wighton.

And when Barba put in another poor kick – a bomb that was easily fielded in the in-goal – Wighton took the quick restart and raced 80 metres to score to ensure his side had an eight point halftime buffer.